One place where it all started was when the word "female" became taboo. Men were told to say "woman" or be labelled sexist pigs. Gave us weird constructions such as, "Male... and woman..." as if one concords with the other. We generally obliged their ideological terminology from the start.

"Fe" with "male" after it - bad. "Wo" with "man" after it - good. Don't say "man" for "human" though.

I would say it's time to stop playing by their rules. You have no more right to tell me how to speak than I, you. Oh, you're offended!? So might I be with "mansplaining" and "manspreading". You think you've changed the rules again, but in fact you've merely come full circle to the old rules. Game on.

In your daily speech, use female, girl, lady, etc - as you like, or just where it follows grammatically if you prefer. Let a few of them call you sexist occasionally. You're learning to get over being called mean things by now, right? Just shrug it off, ignore, continue. Challenge the wannabe matriarchy.