A 1983 state mandate required that all laws be written in gender-neutral terms unless a specification of gender was intended. PHOTO: FILE
SEATTLE: Washington state's governor signed into law on Monday the final piece of a six-year effort to rewrite state laws using gender-neutral vocabulary, replacing terms such as "fisherman" and "freshman" with "fisher" and "first-year student."
Lawmakers have passed a series of bills since 2007 to root out gender bias from Washington statutes, though a 1983 state mandate required that all laws be written in gender-neutral terms unless a specification of gender was intended.
"This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman," said Democratic state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle.
The new gender-neutral references, for example, include "journey-level plumber" instead of "journeyman plumber," "handwriting" in place of "penmanship," and "signal operator" for "signalman."
"There's no good reason for keeping our legal terms anachronistic and with words that do not respect our current contemporary times," Kohl-Welles, the 475-page bill's sponsor, told Reuters.
Several words, however, aren't easy to replace, said Kyle Thiessen, the state's code reviser, who heads up the 40-staff Washington Code Reviser's Office agency.
The state likely won't change the words "airmen" and "seaman," for example, because of objections by the state's Washington Military Department, he said.
Civil engineering terms such as "man hole" and "man lock," also will not be changed because no common-sense substitutes could easily be found, Thiessen said.
Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns "she" and "her" to augment the existing "he" and "his," Thiessen said.
The bill passed the Democrat-controlled state House 70-22 on April 9 and unanimously cleared the state Senate on February 8 before being signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee.
Washington state is the nation's fourth to boast of eliminating gender bias from its official lexicon, following in the footsteps of Florida, North Carolina and Illinois, Kohl-Welles said.
Other states that have passed gender-neutral constitutional mandates include California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Utah, Kohl-Welles said. At least nine other states are currently considering gender-neutral legislation, she said.
"Words matter," said Liz Watson, a National Women's Law Center senior adviser. "This is important in changing hearts and minds."
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Many politicians rule because they seek power, and the ability to control the rights of others. This new legislation is a clear example of that. If people wish to use words like "handwriting" in place of "penmanship" there is nothing stopping them from doing so. Instead, liberal leaders in Washington State are forcing their will and ideas on the lives of others. Now we will be forced to use the words "first-year student" instead of the word "freshman" It's a move in the wrong direction, a loss of freedom and an abuse of our 1st Amendment rights. @Sehrish:
This PC crap is so stupid...like we don't have other more pressing issues that need delt with....
Now let's replace the word mother with baby-carer because gays can be parents too!
Insecure people need words to make them feel equal
this is the kinds of laws you get when state reps. have too much time on their hands..
That is why they rule. They consider equality and such values, for their people if not for the the rest of the world.
And these people rule the world?