Is White Mage a man or a woman?

Usually WM"s are portrayed as female (in later FF's), only Knights use White magic and the WM sprite of FF1 and FF3 looks very female, yet when you class change you can clearly see it's a dude.

Plus every guide i've seen refers to WMs as women.
In FF3 the characters are referred to as boys but later in the game it seems they could be either.

So what exactly is WM hiding under that robe?

P.S. I named my WM Leia in my FF1 game, and when one of my friends saw it she laughed and asked me how Leia came to be a guy's name. That;s when the question of WM's gender popped up...