While we would want to know whether we are addressing a lady or a gentlemen while networking online and using online business networking portals like LinkedIn [ openBC is discounted here because they carry photographs ], in my opinon, it does not make sense to include identifying characteristics.
While we would want to address a lady with added respect and politeness, I don’t see how that affects online business networking communication.
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Wouldn’t we want to be courteous with “everyone”?
Wouldn’t we want to use the same language with everyone?
How would it matter if the person we were writing to was male/female?
If we did interact with someone with a generic e-mail, by the second or third e-mail we would have already been to their website and would have found out whether they are male of female anyway – so why bother with “features” that will tell you whether a particular member is male/female?
