Gender Terms (was MentorNet)

[Brian Whatcott <betwys@DIRECTVINTERNET.COM>]

At 11:38 AM 10/14/02, Richard Hake, you wrote:
> ...we were told about
> the following excellent resource for encouraging women to consider
> science and engineering:
>
> <http://www.nae.edu/nae/cwe/cwemain.nsf/weblinks/DWRR-4XFR8W?Opendocument>.  .
>
> This is the National Academy's "Celebration of Women in Engineering:
> A site for Parents, Teachers, and Engineers, and others interested in
> helping girls (sic) discover the opportunities of engineering
> careers" at the "Celebration of Women Engineering" site
> [<http://www.nae.edu/nae/cwe/cwemain.nsf> / "Parents, Teachers, and
> Mentors" where "/" means "click on"].
...
> Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University


(sic) is the usual indication of a usage considered erroneous, but faithfully
copied all the same. Trouble is, 'girls' is a perfectly useful construct.

If I may provide the reasonable guidance which follows:
a 'girl' is the immature female form of the genus homo:
a 'boy' is the immature male form.
It is customary to refer to the mature forms who appear to be less
than 21 years old as 'young women' and 'young men'.

As far as I can tell, the preceding forms are never ill advised or offensive.
As to defining maturity, the physical features are universally understood in
young women. Signs of maturity in young men are more problematical.
  In this area, I welcome more insights for decision support.

Brian Whatcott
  Altus OK                      Eureka!

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.