Girls, Women, or Ladies: What’s the Right Term?

Deirdre and I are a team of two women running a PR consultancy. We are professional, experienced, and good at what we do. But what should we be called? 

‘Women’ feels a bit serious, as if we should have our lives together (and I can tell you now, we definitely don’t!). ‘Ladies’ sounds like we should be hosting a genteel afternoon tea rather than crafting communication strategies. And while we were once ‘girls,’ calling ourselves that now sometimes feels like we’re pretending we’re still 19. 

This came into sharp focus when we were introduced in an email from one man to another as “the PR girls.” It immediately felt patronising -like we were two fresh-faced interns instead of experienced professionals. The words diminished us, as if our knowledge and expertise didn’t count. We wouldn’t call male consultants in their 40s “the PR boys,” would we? 

And yet… among friends, ‘girls’ feels warm and familiar. “Come on, girls!” sounds perfectly fine when I’m with walking on the beach and drinking tea with my girlfriends. So why does it land differently when men say it? Is it context? Tone? Intention? 

I recently listened to Emma Grede, the CEO behind billion-dollar brands like Good American and Skims on the Ladies Who Launch podcast. Emma is a woman dominating in the business world and it struck me that she has no problem in defining her place in the world as the ultimate girls girl, a female brand builder and a fearless entrepreneur. 

So, what should we be called? What do we call ourselves? I don’t have the perfect answer, but I do know this: we’re not ‘girls’ in the workplace. We’re not ‘ladies’ hosting afternoon tea. Déirdre and I are two experienced professionals running a business, and maybe that’s all the definition we need. 

What do you think? Does it bother you to be called ladies or girls, or is it all just semantics?