you've come a long way, baby!
although this phrase looks gender-free, it has been so profoundly associated with a cigarette advertisement aimed at helping women catch up to men's lung cancer and cardiac death rates that "baby" is assumed to be female. In addition, it is generally women who have been called endearments that make of them babies, babes, girls, and other young, helpless dependents. If you want to defeminize it, men's groups have been known to use: "You've come a long way, Bubba!" It's also being used simply without the baby.
