Girls vs Women - The Debate

To highlight the ongoing inequality of women on International Women’s Day, US-born Bonnie Grier raised the issue of British women being referred to as girls on this morning’s Today programme. “It was one of the first things I discovered when I moved here 20 years ago”, she said. “I found that quite shocking, to see grown women call themselves girls and to allow themselves to be called girls.”

Politician Ann Widdecombe stoutly defended her right to be called a girl, and branded Bonnie too politically correct, asking “Haven’t we got more important things to worry about?”

See this BBC link for more on this interview.

This was quite a relevant story to me, because as some of you know one of my New Year’s resolutions was to stop referring to myself as a girl and start calling myself a woman. This was for no other reason that I am closer to menopause than puberty and really had to start facing the facts!

So, what are the views of the honourable readership of maireaddoyle.com? Is Bonnie Grier a ridiculous Yank who has let political correctness go to her head, or is Ann Widdecombe ignoring the fact that women continue to be confronted with prejudice and condescension in the workplace? Are words like this so important, or is it all in the context?


Is it OK to refer to women as girls?
This voting was closed on 15.03.2004.

Grier needs to get a life - this is political correctness gone mad!
46,15%

Grier is absolutely right - we must insist on more respect than this.
7,69%

It all depends on the context in which the term is used.
46,15%