I observe that the word confidante has circa 3,200¹ hits on The New York Times. And I also observe that on the same newspaper the word confidant has ca. 7,800 hits.

3,200 seems to me a remarkable number in comparison with 7,800. As is well known, confidante is used only for women, while confidant is used both for men and women.

So the question is: Does this represent a persistent tendency to preserve sexism in language? Or are there cases in which confidante is preferable, for whatever reason—e.g., contexts in which these words are not interchangeable?

¹Searching from other countries could have different results.

I observe that the word confidante has circa 3,200¹ hits on The New York Times. And I also observe that on the same newspaper the word confident has ca. 148,000 hits.

3,200 seems to me a remarkable number. As is well known, confidante is used only for women, while confident is used both for men and women.

So the question is: Does this represent a persistent tendency to preserve sexism in language? Or are there cases in which confidante is preferable, for whatever reason?

¹Searching from other countries could have different results.