Gender-biased language annoys several of the people we spoke to. While it may seem trivial to some, these women said it distracts them from their work. One said, ``In the AI linguistics class, we found sexism in all the example sentences. For example, the active person was always male: `John kicked the ball.' Women sometimes appeared in the passive role: `Bill threw the book at Jane.' The one exception was `Mary mended the sock.' Many of the women in the department were incensed at this, because it is blatantly sexist, totally unnecessary, and easily avoided. If AI is to attract and keep women's respect and interest, this sort of thing should be tackled first.''