I believe this is changing very fast as "they" is being pushed as a gender-neutral pronoun even when the gender is known. I know more than one person who makes a point of using "they" even when they (ditto) know the gender of the person concerned. I like to call myself a descriptivist, so I won't state my opinions on this new habit that is in the process of forming, but I'll just point out that the answer will very likely change dramatically depending on who you ask, "knowledgeable" people included.

What does "the mother of woe" refer to in turn?

I always see this discussed in such confusing ways! @Anonymous, if by "indicating the gender of word" you mean their natural gender, then most languages do that in some more or less limited way, but that is not what grammatical gender is at all. Conversely, grammatical gender (in languages having it) can be used as one method to indicate natural gender (which I believe causes much of this confusion), but the two are still very separate: e.g., you can have grammatically neuter but naturally feminine (das Mädchen) or grammatically masculine but naturally feminine (il donnone) words.

Does he never stop working? I think "Where is he working?" would normally indicate that you're asking about his working location at the present moment, where he has been working uninterruptedly up to the point you ask the question, regardless of where he works (his normal job location) in general.