"Guys"

I was thinking last night about something that strikes me every so often... The transition between being called a "girl" and a "woman" is very different from that of "boy" to man." Males have a transitional label that females don't..."guy." I feel like women are called "girls" for much longer than men are called "boys." It just made me wonder why that is. I suppose we had "chick" once, but now that's sort of pejorative. Funny how yesterday's endearments are today's insults--"babe" can be one, "doll" is almost definitely one (my brother called my mom that once and boy was there a scene!).

Can I just not think of the female equivalent of "guy" or do we think that there really isn't one?

Alice

PS. Something I just learned: in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" the word "girlies" was used to mean both boys and girls, and "harlot" was used to mean a man. Hm.... I wonder what else we can find about shifting meanings of words...