Do You Use Somebody’s First Name or Last Name? The Answer Speaks Volumes.

In a professional setting, referring to someone by last name only conveys more eminence—and it’s more common for discussing men than women

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When discussing prominent figures in literature, we may mention such giants as Jane Austen, Hemingway, Dickens and Virginia Woolf. In contemporary politics, perhaps we’ll bring up Obama, Trump, Angela Merkel and Theresa May.

Did you notice anything odd about the preceding paragraph? There’s clearly a pattern: We referred to the women by full name and to the men by surname alone. That’s a tendency that’s common in many professional fields—and it could be a disadvantage for women.

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