14:07 Jan 6 

Thank you all for your kind help.

13:06 Jan 6 

I have heard and read this expression quite often, not necessarily only from young girls but also from (younger) women, which is probably the target group here.

To me, it means being grown up and an independent thinker, which in turn can involve several things, such as
- not needing anyone to tell her what to do / being able to take her own decisions:
- being able to stand up for herself;
- being able to carry out tasks independently, without having to ask thousands of questions;
- finding her own way to do things she is supposed to do.

So, I suppose each of the answers here is correct in some way, and it depends on the context whether you want a more positive or negative connotation. Difficult to say without knowing more about the context: Is is a role play where a girl says this to a superior? Is it a case study, and is the person saying it depicted in a positive or negative light? Is it contained in a description of goals? I could be many things.

But I'm not a native speaker anyway, so I won't even try to add another answer. :-)

01:41 Jan 6 

but that's what it says and we don't know who wrote it...don't men sometimes call themselves "lads", especially when out for a beer or two? Or is that also politically incorrect and "sexist"?

20:36 Jan 5 

I have to say, C, that I agree with Barbara; regardless of other contexts, in this sort of formal HR context, the use of the term 'girl' certainly smacks of a male HR manager!

19:14 Jan 5 

...many a woman likes to call herself a girl, helps her feel young - why is that sexist?

19:06 Jan 5 

If she really was, she would call herself a woman, not a girl! So, this was probably written by an unreconstituted sexist male.

14:17 Jan 5 

Thank you AllegroTrans. Actually, these 2 short sentences are all the context available for this point.

13:42 Jan 5 

can you provide a few lines of the text containing this please? who is saying it, and to whom?