To not like being called a girl at 25

[Cuttherubbish]

I’m a woman with a long term partner and a child. I had a GP refer to me as “young girl recently.

Sightly annoying but not worth getting worked up about

43 I'd love to be called a girl!

No, it's not acceptable. Calling a woman in her 20s a young girl is like calling a woman in her 60s an elderly lady.

I personally don't mind the term 'girls' collectively for a group of women if said by another woman. I don't like it if it's said by a man. Contradictory, yes, but that's how I feel.

Definitely not acceptable. Adult women are not girls

Ugh, so patronising and dismissive. YANBU!

Evs

Just wait ...

I find it a bit weird how long women are referred to (and refer to themselves as) 'girls'. I found it really weird to refer to myself as a woman once I hit my mid 20s but I made a conscious effort to use the word and own it. Not sure why the word has that kind of power. I guess it sounds a bit harsh? The GP sure as hell wouldnt refer to a 25 year old male as a 'young boy' though.

I'm in my 50s, I hate being called a girl. I'm a capable adult woman with all the life experience that entails. Being referred to as a girl takes that all away and is demeaning. I'm not a child!

I’m the same age, I don’t see a problem with it personally

I completely agree - I had "young girl" written onto a doctor's letter when I was 24 (married, with a child, a professional job and a mortgage). A young girl is 6! There was a post on here recently about the age at which women are considered "actual adults" and a mindnumbingly high number of posters thought that it was acceptable to treat people in their 20s like children. SIL (40) always refers to DBro (almost 30) as a "boy" and it drives me nuts - it's so patronising.

I refer to men as boys and women as girls, shoot me now

I'm a bit at the posters (including OP) are backing up the fact they're a woman by saying they're married with children. Those things don't mean it's more shocking you've been referred to as a 'young girl' than someone unmarried with no children. It just means you met someone interested in you and got pregnant....

If you're over 18, you're a woman.

Coming back from teaching practice at the age of twenty-three I was asked if I needed a half price Tube ticket.

Not a problem surely

Well I was a geriatric prema gravida at 33 on my pregnancy notes....

I agree! I hate being called a "girl" with a passion. I'm a woman.

It's sexist, infantilizing and patronising, it is a widespread and completely normalized practice that inadvertently minimizes the existence of women.

I correct people when I'm called a "lovely/nice/pretty/kind/young/etc girl, I'm not a child I'm in my early thirties!

I did Operating Department Practitioner training, and was on placement in an ENT theatre. The big boss person (I say big boss, she was 5ft nothing), would refuse to remember my name and constantly refer to me as "child". I was 34 at the time.

YANBU. Over 18s are adults, not children.

It annoys me too. Why not say 'young woman' or even just 'woman.' I bet the GP would not have written 'young boy' about a 25 year old man.

@DilemmaADay I think pointing out that they are married with kids is not so much because a woman has to be married with children but that a young girl cannot be married with children - if that makes sense. But I agree a woman is just over 18. There is no need to have a job or children or a spouse or a degree or anything else to be one!

Boss once referred to me (about 29 or 30 at the time and not in a junior role) and my 22 year old colleague as 'the girls' in a meeting. It wasn't the place to call him out on it but I like to think I have him a very good glare.

I used to hate it too. My DM was still calling herself a girl at 50!

@HopeValley at my old job, my team was referred to as ‘the girls’ and it drove me absolutely mad. I corrected people every time and I’m sure they found me incredibly annoying, but it always came across as a way of making us sound less capable than we were.

When one woman was promoted and started managing another all-female team, she suddenly started referring to them as girls as well. I think it was a bit of a power-move.

I know it doesn’t annoy everyone and that’s absolutely fine, but it is definitely incorrect to refer to anyone over the age of 18 as a girl - they’re a woman!

Doesn't bother me in the slightest.

My elderly Mum often describes a woman she encounters (usually a health professionals or a carer) as “a lovely young girl, about your age”. I am 57!