To give some context without outing myself: I'm a senior manager. I'm 37. I work in a very small team with an assistant who is in her early 20s and female. There are quite a lot of women in my department, probably about 60/40 woman/men ratio. We work directly with the sales department, which has a much heavier male to female ratio. This is all just for context, it's not really important.
My equivalent on the sales team, who I have to work quite closely with, often comes over and says "hello girls", before he starts speaking to us. I've pulled him up on that before. Yesterday he said "hello gorgeouseverybodysang" which made me cringe terribly but as he launched straightaway into the business he'd come over to talk about I didn't really get a chance to say anything. But I wish I had.
This morning he came back over and boomed "morning girls" and I said, "women, or ladies if you must," and he said "but you are girls". He was so taken aback that I then said no (even though I've asked him not to call us girls before). He asked what was wrong, and I said it wasn't workplace-appropriate language. He apologised, not terribly graciously, and then got on with what he wanted to talk about.
He's now sulking a bit and, if his previous pattern is anything to go by, he now won't talk to me for a few days.
It drives me crackers, though. He does have a tendency to talk down to me, explaining quite basic elements of our industry to me, as if I'm not in a senior position. He's older then me, but not by much - I think he thinks I'm much younger than I am; not that that matters, really. I despise being called a girl. I think it's patronising and demeaning, and everyone else in the office - even the large quotient of rather typically 'laddish' sales staff - manage not to do it.
I'm also hyper aware of being an older woman among a lot of younger women - they can all hold their own, but I do want to make it clear that it's not acceptable.
Is this really such a big ask? I used to do the same position in an extremely male-dominated industry (to the extent that I was one of the only women in the world doing what I did) and again, those I worked with managed not to call me a bloody girl.
My six year old daughter is a girl. I'm a full grown woman in a professional position.
Anyone got any good comebacks? I'll probably stick to the 'please use professional language' line but I'd like to daydream at least...