4 ms·

Why do you talk about "females?" The word you are looking for is "women." ("Females" connotes reproductive capacity [1], which is seldom relevant, and is also

• jpster 9y ago
  I have been noticing more and more people using "female" as opposed to "woman". (They never seem to substitute "male" for men.) Thank you for articulating this.
• dragonwriter 9y ago
  > "Females" connotes reproductive capacity Almost all bees are females. Almost all of those lack reproductive capacity. "Female", either as noun or an adjective, neither denotes nor connotes reproductive capacity, though it may connote reproductive role (though even then, only as an adjective modifying a species or some similar classification, because reproductive roles vary.) It's use as a noun for a human is seen by some as divisive (compared to an adjective modifying "person") or dehumanizing (compared to "woman or girl"); OTOH, it is seen by others as less awkward than either of those constructions and more accurate when the intebt is not age-specific (thus, making neither "woman" nor "girl" alone appropriate) than any similarly-concise expression.
• barleyworth 9y ago
  Fair point; I will try and avoid using "females" in the future. FWIW, the main reason I used this phrasing was that I had already used the word "guys", but wanted to steer clear of the analogous word "girls". Using the word "women" seemed like I would be suggesting some sort of age/maturity dichotomy between "guys" and "women", and it seemed to me that "females" didn't have such a connotation.