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I think that, to a lot of people, if you live in the south, you're a "girl" until you die.
I'm in the Junior League in Alabama and we all refer to each other as girls, as in "One of the girls who worked on my volunteer placement said that she couldn't wait to go sustainer." The girl in question may be 12 years older than me.
My mother, who is 50 years old, refers to the women she works with as girls, as in "I can't believe that girl got a promotion!" and there are many there who are older than she who also refer to one another as girls.
To call someone a "woman" sometimes connotates an infamiliarity or even a dislike. "Can you believe the nerve of that woman?"
"Lady" or "Ladies" are sometimes used... generally, we refer to ladies in large groups. Like I might say, "Settle down, ladies," during a rowdy chapter meeting. Children are usually taught to say "lady," as in "That lady has pretty hair."
"Girl," to me is a friendly term. I certainly don't use it in a disrespectful manner, nor do I use it with any relation to the person's age.
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