Why do people avoid using the word “woman”

Something I’ve never fully understood is why people dislike using the word woman so much in a number of contexts – some people seem to think that woman sounds impolite, but what is it in this day and age that is impolite about woman?  The term lady is misused so much nowadays (i.e. a “lady” was rude) and it seems that people use it because they don’t want to say woman yet they would often call a man a man in the same context.

One of the worst examples is a girl or young woman being condescendingly called “young lady” — like how Creigh Deeds addressed a reporter around 18 months ago.  A boy or man would simply be called “young man” (not that this isn’t damned condescending as well), but there always seems to be this non-parallel man/”lady” thing.

Men aren’t generally referred to as gentlemen and it seems that this word still has its high class and dignified meaning much more than lady.