Say goodbye to ‘manholes’ as Berkeley removes gender-specific words from city code
- More than two dozen terms, including ‘craftsman’ and ‘manpower’, to be replaced with gender-neutral alternatives
A manhole will become a maintenance hole, artisans will replace craftsmen and firefighters and police officers no longer will be identified by their gender in Berkeley’s city code under an ordinance passed by city leaders on Tuesday.
The City Council voted unanimously to replace more than two dozen terms often used in the city’s municipal code with gender-neutral words.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that “she” and “he” will be replaced by “they”. The word “manpower” will become “workforce”.
“In recent years, broadening societal awareness of transgender and gender nonconforming identities has brought to light the importance of non-binary gender inclusivity,” council member Rigel Robinson, 23, wrote in a letter to the council in March.
Berkeley’s current municipal code contains mostly masculine pronouns, according to a city staff report.