As simple as that sounds, it is a difficult proposition to put into practice. History bestows personhood only as a society learns to accept the personhood of various groups of people. Writers, like all members of that society adhere to the metaphors that both bestow and deny personhood, often without conscious thought.
Custom can dictate language.
With the ability to vote, to have a voice in government, to have a language equal to that of men, women could not achieve personhood, could not be perceived as person first. Nor could persons held in slavery, until the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, following the most destructive war this nation has seen on its own ground. But, not even that amendment could alter language and bestow personhood upon this newly freed group of citizens. The metaphor of non-person held such power, that people freed from slavery did not achieve a semblance of personhood until the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Persons who control language, consciously or unconsciously, hold power over people deprived of language, language of process, political process.