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With equality now would female officers prefer to be called Sir ? The problem with the term Ma'am is that it is very close to to royalty and the terms s used for them. A very simple solution would be to call all female officers Miss like our schools even if the teachers are married or not. So your view is what, keep with Ma' am clumsy though it is, or go to Miss ?
With equality now would female officers prefer to be called Sir ? The problem with the term Ma'am is that it is very close to to royalty and the terms s used for them. A very simple solution would be to call all female officers Miss like our schools even if the teachers are married or not. So your view is what, keep with Ma' am clumsy though it is, or go to Miss ?
What country are you in?
Because teachers in the US are called Mrs. or Miss depending, or Ms. and even Ma'am....and the US military doesn't really worry about being mistaken for royalty.
One interesting example, though not military, is that females of officer rank in the New York Police Department are addressed as 'Sir'.
Last edited by ScarletG; 05-13-2014 at 10:16 PM..
Reason: typos
Ma'am doesn't have any connotation of royalty is the U.S., nor am I aware of anyone finding the term clumsy. You have found a solution for a problem that does not exist.
With equality now would female officers prefer to be called Sir ? The problem with the term Ma'am is that it is very close to to royalty and the terms s used for them. A very simple solution would be to call all female officers Miss like our schools even if the teachers are married or not. So your view is what, keep with Ma' am clumsy though it is, or go to Miss ?
In the US, "sir" and "ma'am" have always been minor honorifics similar to "senor" and "senora" in Latin countries. Since there's is no royalty, there is no confusion. They are used in the military just as they are in civilian life, just more formally and frequently.
In looking at the OPs past posts....they appear to be Australian and I don't think they are a troll per se...but they don't come back and reply to most posts they throw out there very often.
They do have a recurring them of a solution in search of a problem as this thread attests to. I am not sure that this is a problem in countries that have royalty.
My old Blue-Jackets manual said that officers are called either 'sir' or by their rank.
Though I know that in many places officers will also be called by their title: 'Nav', 'Eng', 'Doc', 'Captain' [even when they are only a Cdr, though all on my Captains have been Captains], 'Weps', 'Chop' and 'Commo'.
I only addressed a female officer on a couple occasions during my career. I remember the first time I did, I called her 'sir'. She started to chew me out over it, she wanted me to correct myself. So I explained to her that the Blue-Jackets manual clearly states that she is to be addressed as either 'sir' or by her rank. She realized her error and she dropped the issue.
The second time that I addressed a female officer, was years later, I addressed her by her rank.
There are likely more female officers serving today, than there were during my Active Duty career. I imagine that serving now, for 20 years, you would likely bump into more than only 2 of them.
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