Sexism and language

Related to my recent post on the subject of the sexism that is embedded in language, I've noticed an increasing trend in English for writers to use female pronouns as the default. When I first saw this, it smacked to me of a kind of over-zealous political correctness, but I've noticed that every time I see it, it startles me a bit because the picture of 'person' in my mind (what philosophers call a 'prototype') is of a man. I think that as long as that's the case, the language is well served by the convention of using 'she' as the default, and so I'll be adopting it as well.