Jennifer Coates, the emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at Roehampton University, says she was "demeaned" by the youngsters simply calling her "Miss" according to the Daily Mail. Coates requested that female professors be referred to as "sir."

Coates described being called ‘miss’ as “a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job they are, are given high status.” The Daily Mail alleges that she “has called for the traditional titles ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ to be banished from schools to stop sexist views taking root among pupils.”

“The men on the staff are all in their twenties and they were all called Sir. Sire is what you called the king. And Sir is a knight. There weren’t women knights but Miss is ridiculous: it doesn’t match Sir at all. It’s just one of the names you can call an unmarried woman” Coates alleged. “Title plus last name would be better.” 

Coates, who taught a course for undergraduates on sexist language, warned that terms such as ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ risked reinforcing the message that ‘women are lesser beings to men’. 

According to the Roehampton University website, Coates' published work includes titles such as Women, Men and Language, Women in their Speech Communities, Women Talk. Conversation Between Women Friends, Men Talk: Stories in the Making of Masculinities, and The Sociolinguistics of Narrative.