[rmlew]

(Unfortunately while reading the Columbia study I was overcome by the academic verbiage that authors of such studies feel compelled to use. Do they teach “Boring Writing 101” at Ivy League institutions of higher learning? I found it impossible to read more than a few pages without getting a headache. Here is a sample sentence: “Rates of inter-racial marriages thus capture both preferences and socio-geographic segregation.” Huh?)

Yes. It is a required course, at least for students at Columbia College, Columbia University School of General Studies (my Alma Mater), the Fu School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the glorified trade school/indoctrination center known as the Journalism School. Barnard has a similar course. I believe the difference is that on the Columbia Campus, we must use non-specific gender language, while the feminine is the accepted standard at Barnard.
Personally, I failed the feminist new-speak from the get-go, by noting that nouns have gender, people do not.

[Paleo Conservative]

Personally, I failed the feminist new-speak from the get-go, by noting that nouns have gender, people do not.

Wasn't it Ruth Bader Ginsburg who first got rid of that distinction?