Both genders are included, just like the word Actor is used for either gender now. My heroes are no longer celebrities of the silver screen, or even sportsmen/women (with a couple of exceptions).
They are, instead, people know to me from personal experience of their qualities. They are usually colleagues, ex-colleagues, friends, alumni of institutions I have worked with, or relatives of some kind.
Why? Mainly because real heroes don't do stuff that the celebrity types do. They are ordinary people who may end up being extraordinary- a very good student, or alumnus/alumna for instance. She may be good at a corporate job or at a non-profit, as an employee or as an independent entrepreneur. Or a housewife raising kids. Or a maid struggling to educate her kid, and succeeding.
Kindness, courtesy, a positive view of the self and surroundings, a sense of humour, a willingness to do something different, are all great qualities to have in a hero, for me. And I have not one or two such people I know, but hundreds of them now.
They don't always save the world, but they make the world around them a better place. May we have more such heroes!
