Anyone who eats should wash his hands first.
Anyone who eats should wash their hands first.
While many grammar websites try to normalize these pronouns (and have given their very own, professional sounding nickname), it is simply false. Any first grader will tell you that they / their is a third person, plural pronoun. Take for example, the above sentence. It is obviously a general statement, but it is only referring to one person at a time. In fact, the subject of the sentence is anyone. To use a plural pronoun in this sentence would be absurd. Technically, if the subject's number is known to be singular but the gender is unknown, the singular pronoun that is used would be he / his.
Now, in the long history of the English language, only recently has this become controversial. Usually, the debate surrounds gender neutrality. This particular debate has almost nothing to do with grammar, but everything to do with morality and science. The subject will likely be explored on this blog at a later date, but for the present this is an article focusing on objective grammar.
A third way to write the above sentence that I sometimes see is this:
Anyone who eats should wash his or her hands first.
Anyone who eats should wash his or her hands first.
Technically, this is correct grammar, but it is too wordy. Generally, this sentence is used by those who realize the absurdity of epicene pronouns but don't want to offend those who use them. In some circumstances, this could be the most prudent option (for example, if you're communicating the message to a group that you know to be made up of both boys and girls), but as someone with writer's OCD, I personally tend to use the first sentence in both speech and writing. Not only is it 100% grammatically correct, but it is just a bit more concise than constantly saying his or her. And if you're relaying the message to a group exclusively made up of males, then the first sentence would obviously be the only correct option.
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