It is perfectly right for a gentleman to say “ladies and gentlemen,” but a lady should say, “gentlemen and ladies.” You mention your friend’s name before you do your own. I always feel like rebuking any woman who says, “ladies and gentlemen.” It is a lack of good manners.
ATTRIBUTION:
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906), U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 2, ch. 22, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and herself (1882).
Speaking at a May 12, 1869, anniversary celebration of the Equal Rights Association, held in New York. Anthony was responding to Rev. Gilbert Haven, editor of Zion’s Herald, who asked whether he should address the assemblage as “ladies and gentlemen” or “fellow citizens.”
