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（英会話リスニングスクリプト）
Nowadays, with women being more active in
jobs that were once mainly done by men, people worry about
being gender-free or non-sexist in the language they use
to describe various professions.
For example, it is awkward to call a woman
in the fire service a firewoman instead of a fireman, so
we use the word firefighter to describe them both.
Gender-free language is used to reflect
the equal roles of men and women in the workplace and in
everyday life.
It shows how people expect to be treated
fairly and equally.
Updated expressions can be applied to almost
any profession.
A mailman is a postal worker; a policeman
is a police officer; a salesman is a sales representative;
and a businessman has become an executive or business associate.
Some job titles such as "secretary"
tend to give a negative impression of a woman who is underpaid
and overworked, so some people use the title "administrative
assistant" to convey a more positive impression of
somebody who has more responsibility.
However, some people think that this idea
of politically-correct language in job titles can be taken
too far.
For example, in some places, teachers have
become "facilitators" and people serving food
in restaurants have become "food technicians".
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