Gender & language...

Over lunch at Camden Wagamamas, Goth Richard commented that Ancient Greeks had three classes of people - men, women, and slaves - and that the three genders in their language (male, female, neuter) presumably developed as a reflection of their society. IIRC, Fernand Braudel (among many others) noted that society often acts as a key metaphor in the construction of our language, so this can't be too radical an proposition.

However, it strikes me that, in these days of rampant political correctness, we're rapidly losing male and female. If language does mirror society, does that mean that we're now all slaves?