As language becomes more gender-neutral, Berkeley catches up

Berkeley’s City Council recently adopted an ordinance to drop certain gendered terms from the city’s municipal code.

Berkeley’s City Council recently adopted an ordinance to drop certain gendered terms from the city’s municipal code. Photo credit: Dave Bleasdale/CC 2.0, via Flickr

Berkeley’s City Council recently adopted an ordinance to drop certain gendered terms from the city’s municipal code. The measure passed unanimously and affects more than two dozen common words. For example, "fireman" becomes "firefighter" and "manhole” becomes “maintenance hole."

From this Episode:

Credits

Host:

Madeleine Brand

Producers:

Sarah Sweeney, Michell Eloy, Amy Ta, Alexandra Sif Tryggvadottir, Rosalie Atkinson, Adriana Cargill, Brian Hardzinski