Reply to calling women "ladies"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Freeman][quote=Anonymous]OP here- wow, I just posted this!

Ladies and gentlemen is completely fine. Female friends who address me and other female friends as "ladies" is totally fine.

I think the problem is that it's often used in situations where I see a tinge of sexism anyway. "Ladies, could you get us some coffee?" kind of things. Or maybe because I am aware of the sexism that more subtly takes place in the workplace I see no need to differentiate between me and the men I work with- yes, we're different because of our genders, but when you start treating me differently when asking me about work stuff I wonder what else is going on.

[/quote]

To be honest, it doesn't sound like the term "ladies" is what you really have the issue with, as much as other actions you've associated with it. If it was instead "Could you get us some coffee?" kinds of things, with no use of the term "ladies", would the situation be any more or less sexist? There's no need to treat genders differently, but I don't expect all forms of address to be completely gender neutral unless there is some other common title used to refer to a group.(Professor, Director, Doctor, Officer, etc.) If no suitable alternative exists, I don't think addressing a group of women as "Ladies" is inherently sexist. However, if I asked most of the ladies I know to get coffee when I was perfectly capable of getting it myself, they would tell me not only where I could find it, but also where I could shove it afterwards   :shock: [/quote]

Yes, well, you are right- if someone said "Ladies, please get coffee" it wouldn't really be that different than "please get some coffee." But I'm not seeing it in as explicit situations as that, thank goodness - at least not usually. To me, it's more subtle.

Again, though- any advice on how to subtly point out that people are saying this term when it may not be/feel most appriopriate would be helpful. I keep copying my husband on the emails and saying "Jim or I would be happy to talk about the schools with you..." but he still gets erased from the emails, and "Ladies" still seems to be the term we're being greeted with.[/quote]

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