If you visit Berkeley, California and happen to come across a manhole, you can now expect it to hear it referred to as a 'maintenance hole' instead.

This is just one word the US city is replacing with a gender-neutral alternative, as part of its new ordinance as voted for by the council.

Other words to be changed include 'manpower', which will become 'human effort', and 'fireman' or 'firewoman', which will simply be 'firefighter'.

Is there any need for the changes? Or are they a good step forward in terms of how language is used?

Daniel Cahill and Dee Reddy joined us for The Week Trending to discuss this and some of the other stories making the news this week, including Boris Johnson's performance at the Tory hustings.

Listen to the interview in full by pressing the play button on this page.