To say something about an email addressed "Dear Ladies"?

[SilverBirchWithout]

I've just received an internal email (from someone I have not met) addressed to myself and a colleague. It opens with "Dear Ladies", I personally find the general term "Ladies", unless used in a light-hearted way, quite sexist.

I'm now being really judgy about the person who sent it, I assume they are male, but they have an unusual first name, so it's not clear.

1. Would you be as irritated as I am?
2. Does it make any difference if they are another woman or a man?
3. Would you say anything? If so what?
4. Should I bother to actually respond to their request for info, as it is readily available on the organisation's intranet?

Or am I just hot and grumpy?

I work for enlightened organisation, which amongst other activities, campaigns on improving women's rights in the UK and overseas.

Cumbrae thanks for responding to my missus query, sorry forgot I had posted on this thread! Maybe I'm more aware of this on Facebook as my friends and I are over 40...[wink

My ex-boss used to send emails to myself and my colleague which he addressed as 'Dear Both'. For some reason I found that really irritating, even worse than 'Dear Ladies'.
He could have just written 'Dear Sarah and Jo', it's hardly difficult

I would greet an all female group with,"Good morning Ladies." I could say 'Everyone' which is a bit Happy Campers though. Gosh what a fuss about nothing ladies :)

Dear Ladies - sorry, don't see the problem, just someone trying to be polite

Maybe if you had been addressed 'dear bitches' then yeah, I might be able to see your point.

Otherwise, nah, you're being precious

Think I'd prefer bitches to ladies actually, ladies sounds so twee and patronising!

I would send a message to friends starting " morning ladies" I suppose it depends on the context. I wouldn't be offended as it's just a polite word for females to me.

Ooh I am a rabid feminist and I wouldn't be offended by this. I don't consider reference to my gender an insult. But I will often address a group of men in my (very formal, male-dominated) workplace as 'gentlemen' (as in "excuse me gentlemen") -- aiming for something light-hearted but polite. I might put it in an email. I think I would use ladies in the same way, but frankly I hardly ever have cause to email a group of women sadly. I've noticed others in my workplace addressing groups of men as 'gentlemen' too - I'm sure they'd do the same with ladies. It actually might be a class thing - these people are all Oxbridge poshos.

Presumably the email was sent to a group of, er, ladies.

In which case, I cannot understand why anyone would even remotely be annoyed by a greeting of dear ladies. What would you prefer? Dear humans?

It's about the context.

The question is, is the person using "ladies" treating the recipients of the email any differently because of their gender?

So, would he address a similar email to "Dear gents" or would he use their names?

Or - would he even send a similar email to some "gents" at all? Or is it because he sees the recipients as "ladies" that he thinks it's fine to ask them to do jobs that would take him all of two minutes if only he could be arsed - but if it were two men he might not even send the email in the first place?

If you read the rest of the OP's posts it's clear this might well be what's going on here.

Of course someone could still write to people by their real names and still be sexist about who they get to do work for them. But when someone uses terms like "ladies" it implies they are putting the recipients into a mental box called "ladies" and they may well have some baggage / preconcieved notions about the role of women in the workplace (quite possibly on a subsconscious level).

The pay gap still exists: men are paid more for the same work and are more likey to get promotions. A lot of this happens on a subconscious level. As I said upthread, when senior people put their staff into mental categories of "helpful ladies" and "ambitious men", it's the "ambitious men" who get more recognition for their work.

That's why this matters.

Dear Name and Name
Dear Colleagues
Hope you're both well
Re Wednesday meeting
All acceptable beginnings. Posters talking about calling children boys and girls misses and makes the point; it's a home not a work situation and they're children!