Washington State Bans Sexist Words

Washington State Bans Sexist Words

Believe it or not, this is a true story and not an excerpt from a novel about some future dystopia.

40,000 words have been changed as part of an effort to rid state statutes of gender-biased language. The bill went into effect this week. "Freshman" is gone. "Fisherman" is now a "fisher." "Penmanship" is simply called "handwriting." "Clergyman" is now "clergy." "Journeyman plumber" is now “journey-level plumber. And so forth.

I wonder what the official word is for "woMAN" in the State of Washington, or "feMALE."