over the years I've occasionally heard older men call women "females" and I always got the feeling that they were trying to sound scientific. Or somehow wiser than the rest of us.

I never got the sense that they were denigrating women, but now that I think of it they probably were in most cases. Outside of a biology lecture, taking such pains to distinguish "females" from the rest of us means there is something specific about them that requires definition apart from the common feminine nouns. And I doubt they saw that something as a good thing.

OTOH, they may have been hiding their own insecurities with such language. They may have actually been in awe of women and had no understanding of them at all.

Kids now? Who knows...

But often it's just a stylistic habit. You'd have to go by context. Is the person using it use other misogynist language? Do they rattle off MRA talking points?

The thing is, 'female' is an adjective. So aside from anything else, it's simply bad grammar.

But wasn't sure if it was a generational thing or not.

And yeah, bad grammar.

It just sort of stuck with me.

But I use a mix of "woman" and "female", depending on the context.

He doesn't like to be told what to do - probably the same reason he can't hold a job.

sometimes it can be a force of habit. But what is really telling for me is not whether he calls women "females" (although that's certainly a bad warning sign) it's whether he's consistent and calls men "males" as well. If he calls men men and women are females, then I'd start to wonder if he's an MRA or not.

female when talking both girls and women and i do not want to write both. but, i do not know others reasoning.

lady though. i have a huge opinion on that. we are called girls or ladies. i INSIST on woman.

I need to contact you, but I don't have enough posts to do so.

me personally? i am feeling pretty good

read your PM or not.

at the very least. Or does he consider that "wimmens work"?

"that's women's work!"

Not anymore.

Now they use dodges like, 'You're just better at this stuff.' 'I didn't even notice the (trash was full/dryer was finished/dishwasher was full/etc.)' 'It doesn't bother me to (see dirty clothes on the floor/have dishes piled in the sink/leave dirty dishes on the table/etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam).'

I don't know why an equitable sharing of unpaid labor is so difficult to achieve. That these duties aren't shared equally even in the most progressive countries as far as equality of the sexes goes doesn't inspire much hope that it will change anytime soon.

You're right, it isn't very hope-inspiring...