In the past, before young people became "woke," they did (sometimes) say humankind. But mankind sounds better. The arguments for saying humankind instead of mankind are stupid:
Mankind is not gendered. The man is for all humans. There is man, and woMAN.
The reason people used to say mankind is because of the dignity of it, how it sounded to the ear/mind. But now they say humankind, which is dumb because it doesn't have the same quality as mankind, and it's more difficult to say as it is longer. So, why not save yourself some time, and just say humans? It's shorter, and has the same dignity as humankind, or maybe better.
Furthermore, humankind still has MAN in it. You just added H and U to it. Man is still there. But there is no woman in there. It's not womankind. So, if you're a social justice warrior, you can argue that it is still a gendered word.
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