Ms. verses Miss?

Question

What is the difference exactly between calling myself Ms. or Miss?

Answer 1

Miss = unmarried. Ms = unspecified marital status. Both married and unmarried women may be addressed as Ms., it's sort of a female version of Mr. It is most commonly used when you're not sure of the marital status of the person in question, or if the woman kept her own name after marriage (a woman who took her husband's name would be addressed as Mrs. His Last Name).

Answer 2

Ms is the abriviation when a woman does not want to give any designation of being married or not. Its generic.

Miss - unmarried
Mrs - married
Ms - I'm not gonna tell you my marital status.

Answer 3

Mrs and Miss were terms used to differentiate whether you were married , basically taken, or not. Ms. is the alternative for when you don't feel you have a need to explain whether you are married or not.

Answer 4

All men, married or not, go by Mr.

There was no equivalent for women - you were defined either as Miss (unmarried) or Mrs. His Name (married) - so Ms. was created as an alternative for women. It can be used for married or unmarried women, and is often used by married women who keep their own last names.

Answer 5

Ms. was proposed by a Senator so that women could have a 2 letter salutation like "Mr."

Answer 6

Miss- unmarried
Mrs - married
Ms - formal use of term for both married/unmarried

Answer 7

miss is if youre single, and now i use Ms. because i am divorced so i am single, but i still have his last name so i cant use the Miss, because that would imply that my last name is my maiden name

Answer 8

Ms or Ms. (US usage) (pronounced /məz/ or /mɪz/) is a title used with the last name or full name of a woman who is not entitled to be addressed with a higher title. Unlike the more traditional titles Miss and Mrs, it does not bear any reference to the woman's marital status, as Mr does not for a man.

The use of Ms as a title was conceived by Sheila Michaels in 1961[citation needed], upon seeing what might be a typographical error on a copy of News & Letters. Address-o-graph plates were difficult to repair and small, poor groups would not waste resources to correct minor mistakes. Michaels' roommate, Mary Hamilton (Congress of Racial Equality's first female Field Secretary in the South) had spoken to the Marxist-Humanist group in Detroit and taken their newspaper. Michaels, who was illegitimate, and not adopted by her stepfather, had long grappled with finding a title which reflected her situation: not being owned by a father and not wishing to be owned by a husband. She knew the separation of Miss and Mrs had been recent, but one could not suggest that women call themselves Mistress with its louche connotations. Her efforts to promote use of a new honorific were ignored in the Civil Rights era, and seven years later in the nascent Women's Movement. Around 1971, in a lull during a WBAI-radio interview with The Feminists group, Michaels suggested the use of the title Ms (having chosen a pronunciation current for both in Missouri, her home). A friend of Gloria Steinem's heard the interview and suggested it as a title for her new magazine. The tape was erased for re-use by volunteers who regarded the Women's Movement as a joke.

The usage of Ms was championed as non-sexist language beginning in the 1970s, especially in business usage, by those who argue that a woman's marital status is of no relevance in such a context. Starting in the 1970s, many women chose to be called Ms for political reasons, and a major feminist magazine is named Ms.

Miss is a title typically used for an unmarried woman (not entitled to a higher title). It is a contraction of mistress, originating during the 17th Century.

Miss can be used in direct address to a woman, for example, May I help you, Miss? Some women consider this disrespectful and prefer ma'am (or madam in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth). By British tradition, Miss is often used by schoolchildren to address female teachers without using their name, regardless of marital status.

In some styles of etiquette, the eldest daughter of a family was addressed on paper simply as Miss Doe, with the younger daughters being addressed as Miss Jane Doe and Miss Rebecca Doe. In person, as in when making introductions, the styling would have been extended to unmarried cousins with the same surname.

In the American South, Miss is also traditionally used irrespective of marital status and added to a woman's first name in direct or indirect address, as Miss Ellen from Gone with the Wind or Miss Ellie from Dallas. This form was also used in upper class households in all English-speaking countries by servants to address or refer to the unmarried ladies of the household, and occasionally in family-run businesses in the same manner; such usages are rare today.

Miss was formerly the default title for a businesswoman, but it has largely been replaced by Ms. in this context.

Answer 9

I believe Ms. would be after a divorce or death of spouse

Answer 10

Ms. means you may or may not be married, and miss means you are not married