Using 'Mrs'

Ms is a title for all and any woman.

Why would we choose Mrs, the married title, to come to encompass all women?

I don't think I could bring myself to adopt / assimilate that title for myself.

The whole thing is ridiculous, we don't really need any sex specific titles.

Citizen Blu.

That is, looking back on my much younger self, not that I feel pride in being married now that I'm much older.

With bells on Bertrand As long as I'm not "Missus" I don't mind either Miss or Ms and use both. I haven't been under 16 in decades.

I do understand the desire to use Mrs to 'prove that I got a man'. I think on some level I quite enjoyed it when I was very young, because it was only five years since I left school, having gone through my teenage years, like many young girls, being constantly reminded by boys that I didn't meet their (very high) standards of beauty and hence was unlovable.

If we addressed boys feeling totally entitled to judge girls, and loudly pass comment, on their looks, the pride in 'snaring a husband' probably wouldn't be so great.

I understand why the OP prefers to reframe Mrs rather than get people to use Ms. But I don't think it will work.

Didn't Mister/Mr originally come from Master? And both Mrs and Miss from Mistress?

Currently I am guilty of taking the path of least resistance with the DC's schools, they call me Mrs and I accept it because I have other issues that I need to talk about with them on a daily basis. I share my partners surname (we are not married) and so I am Ms. I don't mind Ms at all but I am not always in the mood for the questions that follow.

Interestingly at the childrens previous school the headteacher was a Ms, no matter how much she spoke to the children about it she couldn't get them to address her as anything but 'Mrs', I asked my children why they couldn't chant 'Good morning Ms...' in assembly and they said that it was easier to do what everyone else was doing.

I'm Mrs, but don't mind if people get it wrong/guess if I haven't told them/accidently use my maiden name

Shocker!!!

It isn't the boy's equivalent to miss because it has nothing to do with marital status.

But I don't understand why you object to Ms.

Official letters to DS16 always start "Mr DS" except for from our dentist and optician, who both use "Master". I don't know if it's because of his age or when he will become a Mr. Conversely my GP always put "Miss" on my prescriptions etc despite me having changed my name when I got married 15 years ago. It irrationally irritates me.

"Yes, Master is the equivalent of Miss."

No it isn't.

I think the elephant in the room is that a significant number of people think being married confers status on a woman. So changing the meaning of Mrs would meet huge opposition.

There are always threads where women get up in arms about being called Ms when they are married. They will deny it to their last breath, but it's basically because they don't want anyone to think they haven't been able to get a man

Come to think of it, last time I registered for a doctor in the UK with them, they used Master too. So it is still about (probably because it sounds so weird to use Mr for a 3 year old)

I just booked flights for my family, and BA has Mstr for my sons... slightly irrelevant, but people have been asking.

Other European countries have done this haven't they? Done away with married and unmarried titles and all women are just the Mrs equivalent?

Wouldn't it be just grand if there was a salutation that covered everyone. So no need to distinguish by gender/age or anything. The only existing one I can think of is citizen, which has its own socialist connotations. It has the right implication though I think, bit awkward to say maybe.

I suppose it would be an almost insurmountable struggle to introduce a new one (thinking of the Ms problem of acceptance).

Perhaps no salutation is the way forward and just address people by their given names?

Till I joined MN I thought Ms was the default except for women who want to announce their marital status.

I think Mrs has been associated with marriage for far too long to be used as a default but I'd have imposed Mr and Ms years ago.

I cannot believe op thinks it would be handy for cowardly people for everyone to switch to Mrs. If we all followed the cowards we wouldn't even have the vote. FFS. Is that your attitude to this whole thing? Follow the path of least resistance? The path that society would be more comfortable worth women following? That doesn't advance feminism one iota.

Why would we adopt a title that means "married woman" when there is already one that means "any adult woman"? I know a few people still think Ms means divorced, but Mrs = married is far more entrenched.