On the importance of language

Word choice can be very powerful.  One example is Sarah Bunting's absolutely amazing essay called A Four-Letter Word.  That four-letter word is "slut," and how it is used.  Read it, you won't regret it.

But just today, I came across a video How to Get More Women in Tech in Under a Minute (video below), by Caroline Drucker.  How in professional settings, allowing others to call us "girls," or even doing it ourselves, undermines us.  About how giving disclaimers so that we don't seem arrogant makes us look unqualified, makes us more of a "girl" than a "woman."

Really though, this doesn't apply only to tech.  Women should be called women in the workplace.  We're all adults, and need to be treated as adults.  In personal life, use what terms you will.

Ending this with one of my favourite quotes of all time.

"Girls do what their mothers tell them. Ladies do what society tells them. Women make up their own minds."
- Karen Kijewski