Gender in legal language: formal and material use

Abstract

Legal language has been shaped within a patriarchal system, and therefore has similar characteristics. Most of the –supposedly– universal concepts have been formed in the absence of women, confusing humanity with human beings of the masculine sex. Gender is precisely the basis of this confusion. This article examines how we can detect gender in legal language, both in its formal use in historical Spanish constitutions, and in its material use vis-à-vis the right to accede to public positions, before going on to consider, in the final analysis, what we can do to make real –in the words of the Constitutional Court– «the radical equality of women and men».

Keywords

• género
• lenguaje jurídico
• derecho público
• mujeres en cargos públicos