Is it true that in law books, the term ';man'; is used as nuetral and is generalized as the whole public?

Someone told me,


';in law books the term ';man'; is used as neutral and is generalized as the whole public.';





Is that true?








If that's true..................


how come we had to ratify the 19th amendment to give women the right to vote?





prior to the 19th amendment, the constitution already said ';all men are created equal.';


If the term ';man'; actually means ';person,'; then wouldn't women already have the right to vote before the 19th amendment?Is it true that in law books, the term ';man'; is used as nuetral and is generalized as the whole public?
Laws are construed by the courts as gender neutral *unless* the plain language says otherwise.





So if a law says ';any man who drives a vehicle over 100 mph commits a crime';, a woman could be convicted under that law.





If the law says ';Any man who enters a woman's restroom, or any woman who enters a mans restroom, commits a crime'; a woman could not be convicted of entering a woman's restroom, because the law is plainly only criminalizing entering the other genders restroom.





With regard to the 19th Amendment, however, the US Constitution does not say who is eligible to vote. That decision is left up to the individual States. Immediately after independence, there were a few States that did allow women the right to vote, but by 1807 all had passed gender-specific laws that removed that right.





By the time the 19th amendment was passed, forbidding States from denying the vote to women, over half of US States already allowed them to vote anyway.





Here is a map that shows which States did or did not.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of鈥?/a>





Richard


RichardIs it true that in law books, the term ';man'; is used as nuetral and is generalized as the whole public?
it is not a neutral term. one of the greatest things about interpreting the law is scrutinizing it. As the one poster said, that word, man, refers solely to man.





Whenever you see the word PEOPLE, however, THAT is what it's all about...THAT refers to EVERYONE. So, like that one person said, if the law said no man can do this, ...a woman can lol ... or visa versa....





But as you will see, the words have been modified to ';people.'; If you ever see differently, that's certainly something you could bring up to a court if you ever got into a suit with someone (e.g. ... you're a woman who steals a loaf of bread .... but the law saws no man is allowed to steal a loaf of bread... you could sue, saying that the law only mentions the word ';man.'; And you would win the case---it might even be brought up to the Supreme Court if your state's next higher court above the trial court doesn't catch this one little word...)
yes, it is not a sexist term