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Miss, Ms, and Mrs are honorifics for women with different uses. Miss is for unmarried women, Mrs for married women, and Ms is a universal term. The use of titles historically suggested ownership, but Ms. became popular in the 1970s as a universal title. Some women find ma’am irritating, and the use of Miss for teachers is offensive.
Miss, Ms, and Mrs are all honorifics for women, but have very different appropriate uses. Because for some women, a great deal of politics and emotion is tied into the terms, it’s a great idea to learn to distinguish between the three. Knowing these terms can certainly help someone avoid a misstep. Especially in the United States, Ms. is the umbrella term to use when referring to a woman you know nothing about, particularly in the business world.
All three terms are etymologically derived from “Mistress,” as in “Mistress of the House.” Both Miss and Mrs were in wide and often interchangeable use until the 1800s when the meanings began to deviate. Miss was used to refer to an unmarried woman of any age, while Mrs was the proper honorific for a married woman. The use of “Mistress” to refer to a lover had curiously begun several centuries earlier.
In the 1960s, however, some women began to chafe against the use of titles, because they felt the terms suggested a certain sense of ownership. A “Miss” could be said to be the property and responsibility of her parents, as it historically was, and a lady was her husband’s property, marked with her name and a change of honorific from her. Women wanted to find a term that could be used universally for all women without implying marital status, just as Mr. is used for men.
In 1961, Sheila Michaels thought that “Ms.” it might be a happy medium. Her discovery was likely caused by a typo, and it took another 10 years for the term to become popular. By the 1970s, many women, along with a major feminist magazine, had adopted “Ms.” as a proper universal title. It was an important step for the women’s liberation movement, because it created a new framework for thinking about women.
Not all women use ma’am as an honorific, and some find it downright irritating. Also, in some cases, the use of “Miss” has become conventional. Teachers, for example, are often addressed as “Miss Last Name” whether they are married or not. Critics of this practice point out that “Miss” is a diminutive and that using it to refer to teachers is somewhat offensive. The term is also widely used to refer to young women and girls, particularly in formal settings, such as “Ms.” it would seem a bit excessive for a very young person.
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