My wife is not among those people. That is one of a couple of trigger words that she will react very negatively to, even if it's not directed at her.
That seems fairly normal/common. And you probably know me (online at least) well enough to know I'm not really defending the use of the word on any level other than the abstract observation that many of its users don't mean anything deeper or more sinister by it than when women call men a jerk, a tool, an a-hole, etc.
I certainly avoid using it because I know that to some people it does carry some kind of deeper more degrading connotation which neither they nor I can explain but seems to exist regardless.
When in traffic the times that I may mutter something unpleasant under my breath I usually stick to the word "idiot" - going gender-specific just seems too dark!
Although - changing the subject now - there IS a street, coming out of my home subdivision, where 2 opposing side streets people await to turn in either direction onto the "main drag". 99% of the times I approach my stop sign, there is a woman in an SUV on the opposite side of the street who has gotten there first. She is always turning left, I am always turning right. She waits for me, and does the usual female quick motioning with the hands, etc. etc.
For years I have had a sort of petty fantasy - in this dream, I creep up to their side of the intersection in the middle of the night and plant a sign that simply says: Dear Women of Mountain Ranch Park: If YOU stopped first, YOU GO FIRST!
Up to now this silly daydream has been enough to give me the chuckle I need to move on ... but those annoying frenetic gestures (in lieu of knowing the rule) do indeed grate on me.
You know women drivers....it's all about the gestures, there are no rules!