Male as norm

The principle of male-as-norm is the belief that that grammatical and lexical devices such as the use of the suffix -ess (as in actress) specifically indicating the female form, the use of man to mean "human", and similar means strengthen the perceptions that the male category is the norm, and that corresponding female categories are derivations and thus less important. The idea was first clearly expressed by 19th-century thinkers who began deconstructing the English language to expose the products and footings of their claims of patriarchy.

The principle of male-as-norm and the relation between gendered grammar and the way in which its respective speakers conceptualize their world has received attention in varying fields, from philosophy to psychology and anthropology, and has fueled debates over linguistic determinism and gender inequality.

Feminists believe that the underlying message of the principle is that women speak a less legitimate language that both sustains, and is defined by the subordination of the female gender as secondary to the accepted male-biased normative language. By regarding women's language as deficient in relation to that of men, it has been assumed that women's language is imperfect. Subsequent research by feminist advocates, particularly in discourse analysis, has maintained and qualified systematic male bias. In practice, grammatical gender exhibits a systematic structural bias that has made masculine forms the default for generic, non-gender-specific contexts. The male-as-norm principle claims that the male linguistic bias works to exclude and ignore women, diminish the female experience, and determine that female ideas or forms are unfit to represent many social categories.