She'll be right!

Why we have developed conventional ways of conferring the pronoun she on some things and he on others is, if not a mystery, then at least an area where one should tread carefully.  For starters, you could come up with a brilliant explanation why a particular item is she only to find that it is a borrowing into English from a language where it was originally feminine gender.  And feminine gender in grammar as we all know is not necessarily linked to feminine gender in real life.

However, putting aside such cases, it is possible to guess that natural objects that exhibit strength and size, regarded as masculine characteristics, are given the pronoun he, as is the case with tall trees, mountains, and mighty rivers.

Objects which are regarded as subservient in some way, tools which are employed by the user, animals which are tamed and directed, weapons which are at hand, vehicles which are guided and controlled — all these have been referred to as she. (Yes, I know, very sexist.)

Inanimate things can be personified with feminine characteristics of beauty, nurturing nature, resilience, as the sea, a city, the moon.  Some things can be feminine or masculine depending on the qualities they exhibit.  The mountain ash is he, the silver birch is she.  A big river is he, a beautiful stream is she.

Australian English has pushed this even further than other Englishes.  We can use she as a reference to almost anything.  The cup is on the table. She’s right on the edge.  It has become conventional in phrases like She’ll be right and She’s jake or She’s apples. She’s a shocker of a day.

She’ll be right, mate! sounds so much more comforting than It’ll be right, mate!