Not assuming maleness

I’ve read a couple of stories here about journal referees who presupposed an author was male.  I’ve also gotten some of those reviews myself.  But I recently got a review that bucked this trend.  The referee invented a female name for me (I’ll say it was “Jane”), apologized in case “Jane” was actually a “John”, and proceeded to address all their comments to “Jane”.  I liked the fact that someone assumed I was female for once, the less adversarial tone that resulted from my having a name, and the comments themselves, which were thoughtful and constructive.  Kudos, anonymous referee; I wish I could buy you a beer and ask you a whole bunch of questions about philosophy!

Cross-posted from here.