ABSTRACT

The text of our German constitution is thus, that it does not absolutely reject wornen as electors, rather the contrary. It says "every German" above 25 years of age has the right ofvoting, and, though the masculine form is used, this cannot be construed as a restriction, because all our official documents use that form even when they decidedly refer to women. Besides that, all our laws use the masculine form for both sexes, and a decision that only male persons are meant by any electorallaws founded on no other argument than the gramrnatical text, would involve that our penal code, for instance, could no longer be applied to women criminals, nor our laws referring to tax-paying be applied to wornen proprietors. Also, the text of regulations regarding cases where the right oi voting is suspended or lost are of much avail in an interpretation favourable to wornen; the text speaks only oI" persona" under guardianship, "persons" under bankruptcy, and so on.