Some lawmakers want to change the masculine default in government documents. Reps. Summer Lee, Ayanna Pressley and Robert Garcia are introducing legislation that would replace masculine generics with gender-neutral language in the U.S. legal code. News of the legislation was first exclusively shared with The 19th.

“Gendered words in our laws have detrimental effects,” said Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat.

Lee points to a 2015 research study that found that men were perceived as being better fits for leadership positions when a masculine job title was used in a job description as evidence of the importance of having a mandated shift away from gendered language in the U.S. legal code. A 2019 research project conducted by the World Bank found that gendered language also resulted in worse labor market participation rates for women and the reinforcement of regressive gender norms.

At present, the U.S. legal code defaults to masculine generics except in states that have passed measures implementing a generic language change in their own state legal codes. California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin are among the states that have passed such measures.

Read the full article about the Equality in Our Laws Act by Jennifer Gerson at The 19th.