Washington State has become just one of many states in the United States to become more gender neutral in it’s legislation.
Legislators in Washington state have been on the hunt for gender neutrality for some time, and now their journey may be coming to and end. Since 1983 bills have been circulating Washington state for gender neutrality, and since 2007 there has been a series of bills that have been passed leading up to the gender neutral bill 6 years later.
New laws will have to be written using more gender neutral language. For example you are no longer a fishermen, but a fisher. You’re not a freshman but a first-year student; Fireman to firetender and signalman to signal operator. But some words will remain, for example man-hole and man-lock will not be changed because there is no common sense substitute.
However over 40,000 current laws will have to be rewritten and this is where the bill attracts some of its opposition. Legislators seem to have plenty of time for this but not for fixing the economy and guess where the money is coming from to fund it? The taxpayers back pocket. Nevertheless Washington is just one of many states to eliminate gender bias from its lexicon and joins those who already have gender neutral constitutions such as California, Maryland, New York, Vermont, Illinois and Utah are just some states to name.
So what are the implications? Some say not much; its going to be at-least 20-30 years before gender bias language becomes a thing of the past. But there are those like Liz Watson, a senior adviser for the National womens law centre who state
“Words matter” “This is important in changing hearts and minds”
Woman are now in a higher place than they once were when the old legislation was written. But can changing the way a world looks on a page change the way society views women? I’d love to know your opinion!
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