Women are not admissible to public offices.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) Historical maxim — this rule has been abrogated across all American jurisdictions. At common law, women were excluded from holding public office. Note: the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) secured the right to *vote*, not the right to hold office; the exclusion from office was overturned through state constitutional amendments, legislation, and judicial decisions independent of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Where this applies

• A woman wins election to the state legislature, and a challenger cites the old common-law bar; the court rules the historical exclusion has been fully abrogated by statute and constitutional amendment.
• A county refuses to seat a female sheriff, claiming tradition forbids it; she sues and the court holds there is no surviving legal basis for the exclusion.
• A legal historian traces how women gained access to public office not through the Nineteenth Amendment alone, but through separate state-level reforms that dismantled the common-law rule.