it’s easier for me to default to Sir and Ma’am, especially when drafting emails) is to focus on titles (Dr. / Professor) or other gender neutral (To whom it may concern / Dear all).

Dear Miss Manners: Is there a gender-neutral alternative to “sir” and “ma’am”? I was in a retail establishment this morning, and a staff member walked past me pulling a flatbed cart full ...

DEAR MISS MANNERS ... but whose names I do not know -- I will say things like, “Yes, ma’am,” and “Thank you, sir.” In situations where it is not easy to discern which form may be ...

In the South, saying “sir” and “ma’am” is instilled from the time a toddler can talk. Elders, strangers, customers, clerks: You add that little fillip after “excuse me” or “thank ...

“It rattled me the first time I was called ma’am,” one 23-year-old shared on Reddit. “I thought I wasn’t quite old enough for that yet.” “I address people as ‘sir’. That’s resp ...

The US Marines may ban recruits from respectfully addressing senior members as “sir” or “ma’am” to avoid “misgendering” and offending them. The woke recommendation was made in a new ...

Throughout his life, I watched my father, a Black man born in 1930s Alabama, address his elders as “Sir” and “Ma’am.” He raised my siblings and me to do the same with phrases like “Yes ...