Surely, Peter, that is a problem for many, if not most, languages?

It used to be that you could use the neuter form for mixed groups, even into the 1960s: Thus, for instance, C. S. Lewis could write of a child "playing with its toys" and no-one considered it odd. Then someone (the dreaded "they"?) decided it was de-humanizing to use the neuter, and it got changed to mean inanimate. Too bad, because just after that "they" also decided we couldn't use an inclusive masculine anymore and so the need for the good old neuter returned, but it doesn't really exist anymore.