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From: DOCTORJ@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Jon J Thaler)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: On Womanhood......
Message-ID: <91141.203443DOCTORJ@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 22 May 91 16:50:26 GMT
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In article <9105211741.AA02780@ariel.unm.edu>, NRILEY@BOOTES.UNM.EDU (Natalie
Riley Osorio) says:
>
>  But now I have another question regarding the usage of "woman" and
> "girl." At what point (or what age) does one regard a female a woman,
> and not a girl? I've heard people say that puberty is the pivotal point.
> But, I find that a weak argument since females go through puberty at
> vastly different ages (I know one woman who first menstruated at age 9,
> and another at age 16....) Furthermore, that isn't all that constitutes
> maturity. So, what is the reference point?

I don't think this question has a clear answer.  There is no abrupt
transition between childhood and adulthood.  (Sexual maturity is only
one of many factors.)  I have a nineteen year old daughter, and have
been very aware of her changing relationship to the world (and to me)
over the entire course of her life.  If one defines adulthood as
self-sufficiency, then she is an adult (I was going to say not quite adult
but changed my mind while trying to think of reasons why not.)  I cannot
pinpoint a specific time when she changed from "girl" to "woman."

This question can equally be asked of the boy/man transition with, I
suspect, similar answers.  I'll know better in six years when my son is
nineteen.

I suspect that the sensitivity that women have about being called "girl"
arises from its use by some men to denigrate all women.  For some men
*ALL* women are girls, even when they are 50 years old.  This has little
to do with the question Osario is asking here.