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Ms. Calculation

A few months ago, I blogged about the perils of politically-charged title picklists, mentioning in part that we'd never had "Miss" requested as an option. Better make that: we'd never had "Miss" requested as an option. A supporter of one of our organizations wrote the note below to that organization, which forwarded the message to us for feature consideration:
I was a kid in the 70s when Ms. was introduced--not as an alternative word meaning the same thing as Miss but as a way of not reveal marital status. If the alternatives are just Mrs. or Ms., then Ms. had become simply a synonym for Miss that that non-married women use and that still reveals them as "not-Mrs." I strongly suggest that you add Miss to your list. Then those who choose to reveal their marital status can, but Ms. retains its value of being a equalizer for all of us.
Interestingly, the logic is basically the same as the inquiry featured in this blog in April -- that "Ms." with "Mrs." drains the former of its distinctive meaning as a social equalizer with the all-purpose "Mr." -- while coming to opposite the opposite remedy. (Also worth noting is that both writers are explicitly of an age that they remember the word's introduction and feel its meaning personally.) We got some interesting commentary the last time we posted on this. How do people -- women especially -- feel about this? A non-issue? A big issue? Somewhere in between? Do you care what you see on a form like this, and if so (to paraphrase Freud) ... what do women want?

Comments

Ideally

... if we really *must* have these binary gender things, I'd like there to be one title for men (Mr.) and one for women (Ms.). Why should women be identified by their marital status when men are not? Despite what my mother-in-law thinks, I will ALWAYS be a Ms.

Good Education

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