Problem
The terms Lord and Lady come date back to Medieval times and the feudal system (Lord of the Manor) and referred to people of the "landed" class (meaning they owned land); therefore, nobility. The only way to get land in England was to inherit it (you couldn't buy it no matter how much money you earned until the 20th century). Today, Lord and Lady is also an inherited title of nobility (no land required).
One of the main appeals of Early America was that you could buy land if you worked hard enough and made enough money. America saw itself as "classless": meaning you weren't born into a certain class and could move freely up the class ladder from pauper to landowner. In America, land ownership was not a requirement for citizenship and over time it ceased to be a requirement for voting (after the 1820s).
In America, the term "lord" for men was dropped in favor of gentleman. One wasn't defined by their land, or money and all American men could earn the title of "Mister" in adulthood. It was not the same for women. First women were categorized as married (Misses) and unmarried (Miss) because it was very important to define women by the men on whom they were dependent. As we've learned about coverture, women had no legal identity apart from a man unless they could get a judge to declare them a femme sole. During Colonial England, "lady" became a term a woman aspired to. If a woman knew her place and followed the Cult of Domesticity (in the 19th century), then she could be "a lady".
We got rid of "lord", is it time to get rid of "lady"? What other terms could we use to refer to humans who identify as women? And/or, men stopped being "boys" around age 12 as a matter of respect. Women are regularly called "girls" well into their 80s. Why? Is it okay to infantilize women? Why or why not?