The city of Berkeley, California, will no longer use gender-specific words like “manhole” in the city’s municipal code.
The Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday night to pass the first reading of an ordinance reforming the municipal code to only include gender-neutral language.
More than 20 terms are included on the updated list of changes. “Male” and “female” will be replaced with “people of different genders,” while words like “manpower” will be referred to as “human effort” or “workforce.” The word “manhole” will be replaced with “maintenance hole.”
All gender pronoun references like “he” or “she” will be referred to as “they.”
City Council member Rigel Robinson led the movement to include the gender-neutral terms in the city code.
“It is Berkeley being Berkeley, and what that means is it’s Berkeley being inclusive,” Robinson told NBC News. “A male-centric municipal code doesn’t reflect the reality of the city of Berkeley.”
The changes will cost the city $600.
