Am i a Miss or Ms.? i am confused??

Question

i have to rsvp for a wedding and on the rsvp card i dont know wether to use miss or ms.

i am not married, not divorced, just engaged, and i am unsure which one to use b/c they will go on place cards at the cocktail party.

Answer 1

By not being married yet you are still a Ms. or Miss.  

Answer 2

It really just depends on personal preference.  The Feminists were upset that a man's prefix does not change to reflect whether he is married or not and theirs does.  They did not think that it was fair and so, "Ms." was created so they would not have to change.  

On a side note, when I hear "Miss" I think of a young single woman (18-29) and when I hear "Ms." I think of an older women (30+) but that could just be me.

Answer 3

Both are acceptable.

Ms. means any woman.

A Mr. doesn't change if he has a wife...why should we?

Answer 4

OK let me clear things up. If you're not sure if someone is married or not, to be proper, you use Ms. You don't want to call a single woman Mrs. or a married woman Miss, so you use this greeting "Ms." for any woman you are uncertain of her maritial status. You can use Miss on the wedding invitation. Usually if you're inviting someone to your wedding and it's your wedding, you will use Mrs. because the wedding is the celebration of the uniting of couples. So you know for down the road!

Answer 5

The titles Miss and Mrs. have been used historically to signal if a woman was married or not.  Ms. came along in the 70's and its purpose was to make the female title generic, like the one that males already had.  In other words, it really should not matter if you are married or not and you should tell people that about yourself not let your title introduce a personal detail about yourself.  I have been married for over 20 years and I always use the title Ms. However, many older women I know still use Mrs. even after a divorce.

Answer 6

I think miss as Ms is usually used for someone who's been divorced  

Answer 7

Miss is for single women or engaged women (they aren't married yet!). Technically as long as you are single you can be a miss. "Ms." can be for widows, divorcees, or older single women that are still single but feel like they are too old to be a "miss" I live in the south and have seen obituaries for women that were never married(one in particular was 89) and referred to  as "miss." Some old ladies feel that "Ms." Sounds old or they want people to know that they were never married,divorced, or windowed-but remained single their whole life.  "Mrs" can be for married, or widowees. You are a Miss until you get married, then you will be a Mrs.

Answer 8

You are a miss. Ms. is normally when you are divorced

Answer 9

You can use either.  I have started using Ms. because at 24 I found Miss a little childish.

It's whatever you are most comfortable with.

Answer 10

You're whatever you want to be.

Ms is just a generic term for any woman (the same way Mr can mean a married or unmarried man), Miss is always unmarried.

But use what you want; some people don't like Miss, some people do. I personally have no trouble being a Miss-I mean I am only twenty. Ms makes me feel old.

Answer 11

Although it is usually believed to be a creation of modern feminism, Ms. was sporadically used as early as the 1700s.[3] The term was revived when it was "suggested as a convenience to writers of business letters by such publications as the Bulletin of the American Business Writing Association (1951) and The Simplified Letter, issued by the National Office Management Association (1952)."[4] "Mistress," like Mister, did not originally bear reference to marital status. This changed as the contractions "Miss" and "Mrs." came into use, beginning in the 17th century. The pronunciation mizz for Mrs. has long been colloquial in the American South and other areas.

The modern use of Ms. in preference to the traditional appellations was conceived by Sheila Michaels in 1961, upon seeing what might have been a typographical error on a copy of News & Letters.[5] 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 group in Detroit and been mailed a copy of their newsletter. Michaels "was looking for a title for a woman who did not 'belong' to a man." [6] 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 Ms. (having chosen a pronunciation current for both in Missouri, her home). A friend of Gloria Steinem heard the interview and suggested it as a title for her new magazine, Ms.

The usage of Ms. was championed as non-sexist language beginning in the 1970s when women entered the white-collar workforce in large numbers. At that time, many women adopted Ms. to show solidarity with the feminist movement as well as to influence the attitudes of their male and female colleagues.

Answer 12

You are both, so use whichever one you feel comfortable with.

Answer 13

You would be a miss-ster

Answer 14

Miss is really a title reserved for "young women", meaning 18 or less.  Ms. does not mean you are divorced.  It is a title that is ambiguous to a woman's marital status (you can use this is you are single, divorced, married, or widowed).  Mrs. is reserved for married women whose marital status is known, if you weren't sure you could use Ms.

Answer 15

The general rule of thumb is this:  You're a Miss until you turn 18 (age of majority).  Once you're 18, you can choose Miss (if unmarried) or Ms. (if unmarried OR married).  Ms. usually sounds more professional which is why many women choose to use it.  But it's your choice.  

Answer 16

ms is the shortcut for miss

Answer 17

Miss is for someone who has never been married. Ms is the equivalent of Mr for women because it can be used whether or not you are married. You can use whichever you prefer.

Answer 18

Miss used to be any unwed woman no matter what age.  Many women prefer Ms. though because it sounds less childish.  Either is acceptable.

Answer 19

You are both.  Miss (in US culture) implies "not married," and "virginal."  Ms is the broader term that implies your legal status and your sexuality are private matters.  In some countries (various Spanish speaking countries for example) Miss is used with all females.  

So long as you choose how you define yourself you have chosen the empowered (and appropriate) response.

Answer 20

You are both. A Miss is a unmarried female, regardless of age and Ms. just denotes a female adult without any reference to their marital status. You can use whichever you feel comfortable with.