one important influence on our language in the past decade has been the changing role of women in modern society. there was a time when an unmarried women was called a spinster. but that was before women went into space in rockets, worked underground in mines, and became managers of thought of as men's jobs, it became necessary to change the job titles. for example, a mailman is now a mail carrier, a watchman is a guard, a lineman is a line repairer. and the man of the year? well, she's the newsmaker of the year.