Research has shown that when people don't know what gender someone is, they almost always assume it's a he. Even children do this, for instance if they're looking at the illustrations in a children's book where the hero(ine) is an animal, they say 'he' unless the duck or whatever wears a blatant skirt ha ha... bloody depressing sometimes innit.
That's interesting swedey. Even upto a year or so ago, my 5 year old would call everyone "he" even when she knew that the particular person was female. If she spoke about them, they were always a he.