Assuming you are not a native speaker since you mention language/translation, at the time it was a common salutation when one didn't know the name of the person(s) who would be reading your letter. Gender was not implied. Sometimes people would use "Dear Sir or Madam" but that's more clumsy.
I was always taught in school that "he/him/his" was gender neutral if there was no context indicating otherwise. People have started to get more and more annoyed by this, leading to the grammatically incorrect usage of "them/they."
Anyone who went to school or learned English in 1980s or earlier would have had learned "Dear Sir" as the standard generic salutation when writing a professional letter.
I suppose today one would start such a letter with "Dear Person." That sounds somehow disrespectful to me. There's always "To whom it may concern."
I was always taught in school that "he/him/his" was gender neutral if there was no context indicating otherwise. People have started to get more and more annoyed by this, leading to the grammatically incorrect usage of "them/they."
Anyone who went to school or learned English in 1980s or earlier would have had learned "Dear Sir" as the standard generic salutation when writing a professional letter.
I suppose today one would start such a letter with "Dear Person." That sounds somehow disrespectful to me. There's always "To whom it may concern."