Mastodawn

It's international women's day. Lots of articles and toots are being posted about women in various industries, sports etc...

An unfortunately far too common phrasing will be to use the word "females" instead of women, or girls, or women and girls. Now there's a strong grammatical argument that says female is an adjective and should only be used as such. "Female engineer" "female president" "female assassin". But this hides a much darker historical reason why we shouldn't use "females"

1/n

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Bodhipaksa

@quixoticgeek The word "female" began life as a noun, back in the 1300's. It only later became an adjective, but it's still a noun. (Check a dictionary. for confirmation)

"Female" originally only referred to humans, but later became extended to plants and animals, and its scientific/clinical connotation is why some people have historically resisted its use as a synonym for "women and girls." It's nothing to do with unethical gynecologists.