Q and A:
Q: "I've seen the term 'the fairer sex' being used in a number of areas to refer to females. How did they get that title? What does 'fairer' refer to in this case?"
A: "OED will provide a citation, I'm sure. Chaucer used fair maid and fair maiden, but the earliest use of fair (or fairer) sex I can find is from Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott, 1771–1832)."