Can we refer to natural selection using the word 'she'?

[Fedorov]

"Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight, successive variations. She can never take a sudden leap."

This sounds pretty odd to me because of two major reasons. Firstly, in Russian natural selection is he, and I'm Russian. Secondly, it seems to me that English grammar suggests usage of 'it' because the subject is not a living person, am I right?
Please, share your vision of this problem if you want to:)
Thanks in advance.
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[BenDover23]

That's a good question, I now that Germany also can be considered as a female in such sentences. I was wondering if there's something like a general rule for countries, notions, institutions or whatever about the "gender" of some nouns.

[Alan]

Hi Fedorov,

I would agree that my choice would be 'it' but I suppose that 'natural selection' is close to 'Mother Nature' and that's why 'she' is used here. At the same time the use of 'she' is a bit weird, even romantic!

Alan
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[Blue_Snow]

Can you tell me clearer about the term Natural selection? What does it mean?

[Torsten]

BS/VW, this is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry on 'Natural Selection': Natural selection is the process by which certain heritable traits—those that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce —become more common in a population over successive generations. It is a key mechanism of evolution.

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[Blue_Snow]

Thank you. But now I wonder what subject it belongs to? It sounds like biology but I still can't find the equivalence in my language.