'Man' as a generic noun

Question 1

Sexism

Answer 1

‘the opinion that one sex is not as good as the other, especially that women are less able in most ways than men’. - Longman’s Dictionary

Question 2

Historical attitudes

Answer 2

‘The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities’ - Aristotle
‘Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear and bring up children’ - Martin Luther

Question 3

Generic ‘he’ pronoun (1850)

Answer 3

is supposed to include females as well as males

Question 4

Coward & Black (1990)

Answer 4

pointed out if generic ‘man’ is genuinely inclusive then the following sentence should sound equally odd:
‘man, unlike other mammals, has difficulties in giving birth’

Question 5

Kidd (1971)

Answer 5

demonstrated that when students are asked to visualise the referent of the generic pronoun, they almost invariably draw a male referent.

Question 6

Androcentric

Answer 6

English has a built-in bias towards men

Question 7

Stanley (1973)

Answer 7

there are 220 English terms for a promiscuous female but only 20 for a male