In French we are not as surprised if « une personne » relates to a man and if « quelqu'un » is a woman.  (Feminine words like « personne » which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of « sentinelle » and « ordonnance »).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using « on », the plural, the second person,...), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present.  Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule _le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin_ is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use _institutrice_ to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of _infirmières_ to refer to the whole profession is also common).