General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Women only: Regarding the use of the term 'girls' to describe women. [View all]Nikia
(11,411 posts)Everyone used "women". It was important to assert our equality to men and assert our adult status. After graduation, I was a little disturbed that some men used "girls" at work especially when referring to women their age or older. I thought that this was dismissive and suggesting that female workers were less important or doing less important work. Aside from this language, I have found that most men who use "girls" in a professional context are sexist in general.
Now that I am in my thirties, though, I occaisionally find myself find myself referring to younger coworkers as "boys" and "girls" when I talk about them, although not to their face. My meaning is that they are significantly younger than me and relatively inexperienced. Since I think that it would be disrespectful to refer to them this way to their face, maybe I shouldn't talk about them this way to other people, even those that don't personally know them, in this manner.