"guys" - an acceptable form of address for women?

[BelleCurve]

Is this appropriate/acceptable ever to use for a team of women/mixed? Does it matter if the person saying it is male or female?

I am trying to think of an improvement, but "ladies" or "girls" is even worse

Is this an age/generation thing?

If I said "the guys from accounts" I would mean the people from acounts, whose gender is not important to whatever I am about to say. If I specifically wanted to indicate their gender (and it was a single-sex group) I would say "the boys from accounts" or the "girls from accounts".

Guys is just the updated version of calling the whole of the human race men and referring to people of either sex as he, then claiming that women are included too.

If men wouldn't like to be called "girls", then why should women put up with guys, apart from the fact we're not supposed to rock the boat?

upahill wrote - "I would HATE to walk into a room of female colleagues and say 'Hello Women' sounds bloody awful as a greeting tbh."

but you think "chicks" is okay.

Why?

.....Because chicks is an informal friendly term that is common unoffensive term within my close circle of friends and colleagues. I wouldn't use it with a group of women that I didn't know.
Wlking into a room of mates and saying 'hello women' would sound really strained in my neck of the woods.

I find 'guys' and 'folks' gender neutral and can be seen as a friendly greeting to either sex or to a mixed crowd.

Girls, chicks, birds, dolls - all imply something silly, weak and immature.

Ladies does at least simply refer to a group of women. That's all it means.

In close circles of friends I don't get offended by chick, doll or the like. It's about context. If my head of service came in and said it we would certainly feel different.

Hate 'chicks'.

I think 'guys' has become neutral gender.

Chicks is awful. I use 'gang' sometimes, but my job is informal. I'm not sure I'd use gang in a business environment.

I use "My Lovelies" of all groups, male female mixed.

Agree that 'guys' is the equivalent of calling everyone 'he' and claiming women are included. Never thought about it properly before, but language does have connotations for how things are perceived, soI will stop using 'guys' to talk to my class. I do get offended by 'chicks' or bird or anything for the same reasons colditz gave..

My most common form of address to my class is 'you horrible lot'. Friends would address as 'you lot'.

"Guys" is too colloquial for a formal/professional address, but I would not hesitate to use it for my friends. I would be happy to use "Ladies" also (more of a joking than formal undertone).

For more formal crowd I would use "Ladies" or "Colleagues". If the group to address consisted of men, then "Gentlemen".

I often call any group of friends who I'm with at the time guys. Doesn't matter if they're all men, all women or mixed. I don't even see it as having a gender. It has genuinely never occurred to me that anyone (youngish) would find it offensive.

My sister went to an Irish all girls school and nearly fell over in horror when the (female) Head teacher referred to a whole school assembly as "lads".

I use "everyone" normally, but "ladles and gentlespoons" when feeling silly.

What Don'tdoitkate said. Guys pisses me off.("Ladies" makes me flinch and "here come the girls" in the boots ad, don't get me started)
We (DH, myself and two Ds's) are often addressed in restaurants as "Guys" and it really pisses me off. I never say anything (my cat's bum expression probably says it all), but oldest Ds has started piping up with a grin on his face, "Mum doesn't like being called a guy, she's a woman".

I like to tell myself I am bringing up a nice couple of male feminists.

Age related, I think - have just asked DD (16) as far as she is concerned, 'guys' is gender neutral. I'd go with colleagues in a formal work situation, though.

Am a bit about the idea that 'ladies' doesn't have any other association/connotation apart from group of women. What about 'ladylike' and phrases like 'she eats like a lady', 'my lady wife' not to mention the overtones of social position, depending on the status of one's husband, of course...

balia 'Ladies' for me is nothing more sinister than a formal address to a group of women. I am a foreigner with 20years in the UK though.

It's fiiiiiine

My mother calls her work team 'chaps'. She is quite jolly-hockeysticks though - not everyone could get away with it

I would really hate some one coming into our office and calling is all 'my lovlies' sounds a bit creepy in 'a league of gentlemen' way it something out of 'little briton'

Anyway I prefer the way me and my mates greet each other (despite the cats bums face from folks on here) than the way the fellows go st work! Now that would upset people here!

Turkeyboots - I thought it was ladles and jellyspoons

TidyDancer - I didn't say I made an issue out of it. Someone else commented and his response was to prefer "dolls" - that got a shocked face from me here, but in the interests of office politics hopefully I kept my shocked face blank in RL

I've always used 'guys' in a gender neutral sort of way until a thread here got me thinking about it. I still use it a bit though as nothing else comes very naturally. Most often when coming home and saying 'hi' to my children, or in informal emails to small groups I know well. Thinking about tit the alternatives I use tend to be 'everyone' 'people' or 'all'. I wouldn't use 'girls/boys or 'ladies/gentlemen' except in situations where a heavy amount of irony was required.

I agree that it has become gender neutral, and as i said, i use it all the time. I'm just a little unhappy that the only words that become gender neutral are traditionaly masculine ones. i can't think of a single word that used to apply only to women that now applies to both genders.

But seeker, you didn't address my trouser question and I'd be really interested in your (and others') response to that.