Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Very benign matter - preferred title

32 replies

MQv2 · 06/11/2018 19:06

Currently involved in a project which involves emailing a lot of people who I have not spoken with before.
Not cold calling.
Just wondering where it is evident that the recipient it female is the proper ettiqeute to use Mrs or Ms?
I know it's a small matter but I'd rather make sure that I'm not causing any annoyance.

OP posts:
NopeNi · 06/11/2018 19:22

I don't think I've ever been emailed with Ms/Mrs, ever. Including many "cold caller" emails.

In my industry at least you'd just use a first name.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 06/11/2018 19:18

Could you get away with just "hi" or "hello" and no name/title?

Original poster
MQv2 · 06/11/2018 19:16

That's what I thought was the safer option, I just couldn't remember if I'd seen somewhere (perhaps on mumsnet) that Ms had connotations that a person was junior and that there was a more appropriate neutral title for work emails
(Miss maybe?)

But you've at least backed up my initial instinct so I'll stick with that
Thanks

OP posts:
NotANotMan · 06/11/2018 19:15

Ms is not horrible nor an Americanism

AncientLights · 06/11/2018 19:14

You won't be able to do it without offending someone. If you just put a name without a title, someone will be annoyed at the lack of title. If you put 'Mrs', the unmarried and those who are married but don't use their husband's name (and why should they) will be miffed. Others will thing 'Ms' is a horrible Americanism. You can't win. Roll some dice to decide.

NB English women (not sure about Welsh, Irish & Scots, though the latter had 'mistress' for quite a while I think) used to be Mrs once they hit about 25 or so, as Miss was a girls' title. I used to be Mrs + changed surname, following the old English custom being considerably over 25, after divorce, but got fed up with people thinking I'd remarried. So now I avoid titles or Ms if I absolutely must.

katmarie · 06/11/2018 19:14

I would use Ms or their full name, unless I had something on which they had addressed themselves as mrs. Least likely to cause offence, I think

AssassinatedBeauty · 06/11/2018 19:07

I have no idea about "proper etiquette" but you surely can't assume women are "Mrs" without knowing whether they are married or not?

Swipe left for the next trending thread