The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing: For writers, editors, and speakers was first published in 1980 by Casey Miller and Kate Swift.
'"[3] They give the following as an example for where the generic use of 'man' is not applicable: "One author, ostensibly generalizing about all human beings, wrote: 'As for man, he is no different from the rest.
As an example, they offer this statement about a fictional television show: "Powerful lady attorney and confident young lawyer team up to defend a wealthy contractor accused of murder."
Using "lady" in this way implies that the 'confident young lawyer' and the 'wealthy contractor' are both male, and also suggests that a woman needs to be explicitly described as powerful.
They go on to urge that qualifiers not be used with just women, and instead suggest that the above statement read: "Powerful attorney and her young male colleague team up to defend a wealthy businessman accused of murder.
Their intent in The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing was "to give people the background, to make them aware of what was happening right underneath their noses...we didn’t want to tell people, Do This or Don’t Do That!” Due in large part to their work on the topic, by 1980 when The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing was written the movement supporting non-sexist language was gaining traction.