Froedtert Hospital has been named a 2017 Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the country's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer civil rights organization.
Indeed, the data presented here confirm that dude is an address term that is used mostly by young men to address other young men; however, its use has expanded so that it is now used as a general address term for a group (same or mixed gender), and by and to women.
The term dude was first used in print in 1876, in Putnam's Magazine, to mock how a woman was dressed (as a dud/dude). The use of the word dudde for clothing in English goes as far back as 1567.