‘The girls’

[Girlygirlgirl]

I’m fairly certain I’m not being unreasonable in getting irritated by this, but does this irk anyone else?

I started a new job 6 weeks ago with a new organisation. In our department there are two types of job role. My role is highly qualified, the other role is also skilled but less qualified, and supports my role.

The people that do the other role are collectively called ‘the girls’. For example ‘the girls can do that piece of work’ or ‘give it to the girls to action’. I don’t get it. They are not girls, they are grown women!

Everyone who does my role is also female. We are all women! So why are they ‘the girls’? In my old organisation we called them by an abbreviation of their job title.

And just to add when I go out with the girls I don't go out to play! Which is what you're saying. Now who is infantalising women. I go out to drink wine or whatever. And I'm happy to be referred to as out with the girls

I thought this was going to be a thread about women making twee reference to their breasts. I obviously have a dirty mind.

Ah, glad I’m not alone

I'd just start referring to the support team as just that. The support team or some such name. I can't say "the girls " or "the boys" in a work setting. I'd feel like an idiot. Somehow it's demeaning to the women and infantilises the men.
Agreed.
I'd always say the admin team or the IT team.
I don't understand why adults would feel the need to infantalise their colleagues.

I would actually say someone who allows sexist behaviour in the workplace is soft, because you're letting people be patronising towards you or your colleagues. They are women, a team, at their place of work, not girls.

We had an admin team that was all female and were referred to as 'the girls', used to drive me mad, interestingly over time the team is now all male and they are not referred to as the boys...but the admin team.

Either way the girls or the boys is unprofessional.

Completely agree with this...and interestingly it is usually women that are infantalised in my experience.

I don’t think it’s offensive but I don’t use the term “the girls” in my group of friends. I just use their names or say friends. My parents do, they say they’re going out with the girls/lads. But they’re in their 60s and that was a thing when they were younger.
I work with all men and would never refer to them as the boys. They’re middle aged skilled men, it would be cringey.

It is a bit shocking, in a professional environment.

I’d probably say I’m going out with my friends tonight. Teachers at our nursery school can’t say this either, for example if there is a group of just girls (or boys) they’d rather say ’Ok children, lets go inside!’

I’m too busy at work to be concerned with what other people are called, especially if they don’t care.
100% couldn’t give a rats ass, I’m way too busy with my actual job to worry what other people are referred to as?
But from my experience, what’s acceptable is almost 100% always down to the type of business you’re in.
For example. I work in software and was working for a smallish, what was family run business that got bought by a corporation. The language and atmosphere changed and went from the equivalent of being able to call them ‘girls’ to being required to call them ‘admin’ and it became a clinical feeling corporate hell hole lol
I guess if you’d always worked at the corporation, it’s your norm tho?

I think you ABU to care what other people are called though, if it doesn’t offend you, in the words of that great song in Frozen… ‘Let it go…’

Probably not a popular view, but here goes ...

As a 40 something professional female, my take is that we should positively retake the term “the girls”. It is not derogatory when used in the correct context.

Proud to be a girl and an assertive feminist.

I think bigger issues here are are “the girls” treated fairly, paid well and treated with respect.

Surely being a ‘girl’ (a female person who hasn’t yet matured into adult womanhood’) is the only ‘correct’ context?

I agree OP. I used to work in a place as the admin support with another woman for a team of several project managers. The bosses were two men. My admin colleague and I were referred to as 'The girls'. The male bosses were never referred to as 'The Boys '. I asked people to stop doing it be making that point. It shut them up soon enough.

This exactly. Sorry I do not see the offense in this, I have also heard men being referred to as the lads or the boys in a work context as in "the lads will sort it" or the "boys are working on it" and didn't think anything of it either.

There's far more important stuff occurring to women to stress over tbh, like the piss poor rape prosecution rate or the sky rocketing domestic violence rate. Or all the gross and vile violent hate porn flooding the internet, which is actually a human rights abuse.

Or would be if society actually gave a shit about women instead of pretending to care via useless tokenism.

By the way, to get back to the point of this thread - it's not that I think you're actually being unreasonable, you're perfectly entitled to your point of view. I just don't see the offence in this.

That would grate with me too op

Although could be worse I worked somewhere where the woman in a similar set up were called the Boss' harem. It was awful lots of just joking laughter.