CONCORD, N.H. - New Hampshire penned the nation’s first constitution in 1776, binding until the end of the Revolutionary War. With the war won, the state in 1783 ratified a new one that opens with the words, “All men are born equally free and independent.’’

Now, some say another rewriting is in order.

The word men might once have referred to those with rights and power, but no longer, and the constitution should be amended to reflect as much, says a group of New Hampshire legislators seeking to excise the word men and similar references and replace them with gender-neutral ones. In a state that now has the nation’s first majority female legislative body, backers say that changing the language is imperative.

“It’s a very simple thing in my mind,’’ said state Senator Kathy Sgambati, a Democrat and chief sponsor of the legislation, which has 18 cosponsors. “The constitution should reflect our government, and that includes women.’’

But the constitution is historic, sacred even, others say, and to insert gender-neutral language into the text would alter its natural rhythm and fundamental expression.

“There is a lyric quality, a literary quality, that expresses the ideals of the founding fathers,’’ said Representative Jordan Ulery, a Republican. “The bland gray socialist language just destroys all that.’’

Nearly a century after women won the vote, almost four decades since the women’s rights movement, the measure of women’s equality is often expressed in quantifiable terms: the number of women who are chief executives, law partners, firefighters. But there are issues of symbolic equality, too, such as constitutional language.

A number of states have amended their constitutions to include gender-neutral language, including Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, California, Florida, Hawaii, and New York. Other states, such as Nebraska, have tried to amend their constitutions and failed. Massachusetts has kept its original language, as has the US Constitution.

There have been some attempts at smaller changes in Massachusetts. Senate President Therese Murray has recommended that her members write legislation in gender-neutral language. A 1998 law allowed bills introduced in the State House to use the words he or she to refer to either gender.

But when state Representative Cory Atkins of Concord introduced a bill in 2008 mandating that gender-neutral language be used instead, she was lambasted as politically correct, with critics arguing that the word he is accepted as a generic term in everything from laws to the Bible. The measure failed.