these new attitudes have also helped men, and some job titles have been changed to include them. Stewardesses are now called flight attendants. A laundress is a laundry worker, and a maid is a houseworker, because men wash floors too !
Sometimes new words may seem awkward and silly, such as chair for chairman, fisher for fisherman, and drafter for draftsman. But change is never easy. People often fight change until it becomes a familiar part of everyday life.
Women have fought long and hard to be treated equally in language as well as in society, because they know that changes in language can cause changes in attitudes. If every person isn't referred to as he, people will begin to realize that men aren't the only ones who are important or who have made great achievements. Most words that indicate only one gender have been replaced with words that refer to both males and females. Thus, a poetess is called a poet, a waitress is a server, and mankind has become humankind.