Since when does 'Ms' means divorced?

Me too, been using Ms for 30 years and yet to be divorced, I too was aware of quite a few non divorced women using it back then.

The CRB thing puzzles me, mine got through OK 6 years ago and there is no way I would have put Miss or Mrs on it, but I have heard often on MN that they got bounced for using Ms wih no previous name. Maybe I just didn't put a title.

I'm 50 and have used Ms since I was 15. Never been married, never divorced, and thought it was common knowledge that Ms means 'no marital status declared'.

"The answer to your OP was about 15 years ago. It was generally accepted that a ms was a divorced woman."

No it wasn't. I've been Ms since I turned 18, which was nearer 30 years ago than 15 years ago having done that arithmetic I shall now do my best to forget it again , and that wasn't an uncommon thing to do even then.

No, I think maybe 15 years ago there might have been more people who were confused about what Ms meant, but it didn't mean that then anymore than it does now or ever did. I know my mum proudly used Ms on her library card in the mid 70s, and my drama teacher was Ms in the early 90s and we knew what it meant.

Gosh merrymouse I remember when Ms London was Miss London!

Generally not accepted as that where I was 15 years ago.

I got my CRB form bounced back as I had "lied on my form" by stating I was a Ms but not giving my previous surname (they assumed I was divorced and had not declared my married name).

This was in 2007.

I have used it for many years, boys are called master x and girls are called miss y, then when they get older males become Mr x and femalea stay Miss y - I am no longer a child and so I choose to be Ms

The answer to your OP was about 15 years ago. It was generally accepted that a ms was a divorced woman.

Not in the UK, I don't think. Loads of people I knew were Ms then.

I think Ms just means "my marital status is none of your business".

Whoops, posted too soon.
it was also thought to be used by a divorcee who didn't want anybody to know that her marriage had failed.

It was especially true of business women who wanted to portray a professional status and there was still the stigma of having failed if your marriage had broken down. This is what I was lead to believe too.

I'm not saying I agree or the thinking was right but certainly of its time afaik.

The answer to your OP was about 15 years ago.
It was generally accepted that a ms was a divorced woman.
I thought that was what it meant as that was the general consensus of people I knew who ever commented on it.

Ms is forever linked in my mind to 'ms london', the freebie ads magazine my dad used to bring home for me in the 70's and 80's.

It means you are a modern young woman nd f u cn rd th u cn ln shthnd.

Nothing whatsoever to do with divorce.

In a similar frothy vein, a colleague of mine was crestfallen when the new telephone list came out at work, listing her as Ms Baboons Colleague.

She wanted people to know she was single and felt it was a slight that suggested she was past it (at 32) so she emailed and asked them to change it.

In fairness, there was no consistency. Some of the new staff were referred to as Miss, it's just that the person who made up the list wasn't sure about my colleague so plumped for the neutral form.

Sorry, posted too soon.

It was like that because you could not, traditionally, be Miss Susan Smith.

You were Miss Brown if you were the oldest unmarried daughter of a family, even if your name was Susan. Miss Susan if you were the a younger daughter. Then you got married, and became Mrs John Smith. Your younger sister, incidentally, who had been Miss Gertrude, became Miss Brown. When you divorced, you became Mrs Susan Smith.

My brain is full of crap like this. I am very old, and very posh.

My vet, who is lovely, but very young started off by calling me Mrs wellies, I kept telling him to call me violet, but he just didn't seem to be able to do it.
Eventually I explained that l was not, nor ever had been Mrs anything.
He now calls me ma'am

"traditionally it was used by divorcees"

No it wasn't.Traditionally divorcees used Mrs Herownfirstname Hisname. So, Mrs John Smith was married to Mr John Smith. Mrs Susan Smith was divorced from Mr John Smith. The Ms meaning divorced thing came about because people just could not get their heads round the idea of women not wanting to be identified by their marital status. So they invented something.

Like others my impression has always been that Ms is so that marital status is not displayed ie same as Mr.

I've been a Ms on and off depending on mood since I was 16, so 25 years. No-one has ever batted an eyelid and TBH it's only on MN that I have seen people and organisations thinking it meant divorced.

I think the connotation in this neck of the woods when I was growing up was Ms = crazed man-hating feminist, rather than divorcee.

I'm struggling to elucidate what I mean (coming from the POV of a married woman who has always used Ms Ownsurname) but this

That whole 'practising your new signature' thing - the frothy excitement of leaving your old self behind and becoming a 'proper grown up wifey' - it seems daft, but when you love someone becoming part of their family - and having that made official with names and titles - is enticing.

makes me feel really sad. Why are girls conditioned to feel like this? Even as a girl it puzzled me when marriage and changing name seemed to be the height of some of my friends aspirations in life. It's as if being unmarried means you aren't properly grown up and by implication if someone doesn't change their name their marriage is less valid than that of a Mrs DHsurname.

It's because some people think the only people who care about feminism are dungaree wearing lesbians or bitter divorcees. You know the ones who can' get a man so have to be all political and use Ms.

I think when it first came into common usage in the UK - as far as I noticed anyway, even ancient old me was very young - it appeared to be for divorcees. The implication was "What should divorcees call themselves? They don't want to be Mrs any more and why should they go back to Miss?"

My impression about it, looking back, was that women WANTED to broadcast their marital status to all and sundry and when divorced were genuinely distressed by not being able to tell people whether they were unmarried, married or divorced. Quel horreur!!

Of course this is all balls and the main reason for Ms is because women don't see why they should have to reveal such personal information every time they fill out a form. But if the young me didn't twig all this then I understand why other people didn't either.

I'd never heard of Ms being for divorcees until I read it on Mumsnet quite recently. I've always understood it to be a title used by women who don't want to reveal their marital status. In fact, it came into general use as a title to use when writing to women whose marital status you didn't know, I think.

I use Ms because Miss sounds ridiculous for a woman of 43 & I am not married (or divorced!) so am not Mrs.

I have always used Ms I'm married but didn't take my husband's name.

I remember at school a teacher (male) once informed the class that Ms was just used by silly women who didn't want people to know if they were married or not. So there you go, now you know what it means.