java - "Cannot reference Employee.DEFAULT_GENDER before supertype constructor has been called" Error -

i have following code

public class employee {  private string name; private string gender; private int age;  final string default_gender = "male"; final int default_age = 18;  public employee(string name,string gender,int age) {     this.name = name;     this.gender = gender;     this.age = age; }  public employee(string name) {     this(name,default_gender,default_age); }  } 

i getting following error

cannot reference employee.default_gender before supertype constructor has been called 

i don't understand why saying employee.default_gender? have not defined static! , why not allowing me call constructor 3 parameters? have defined default_gender , default_age ensure default values. need create employee object name(gender , age set default in case. no default constructor allowed). views of why happening?

default_gender instance variable of class employee, cannot used until instance of class created. until constructor executes instance not constructed, hence such error.

make both default values static .

final static string default_gender = "male"; final static int default_age = 18; 

qualifying variables static makes them associated class employee , hence can exist without creating instance of class employee.