The Uses and Meanings of the Female Title "Ms."

This article examines the use of the female title Ms. by students, faculty, and staff at a Midwestern university in the United States using data generated with the written survey used by Donna Lillian (1993) in a similar study in Canada. Findings show that faculty are fairly consistent in their understanding of Ms. as a neutral title to be used for all women and are more likely to choose this title than students and staff. Student responses show a wide range of meanings for Ms., with the meanings ‘young’ and ‘single’ being the most common. Female students were far less likely to select Ms. than male students, showing a gender gap in the student data that is not seen in the staff and faculty reponses. These data show multiple meanings and patterns of female title use in the United States today, with little evidence pointing toward a decrease in this variation. Although Ms. as a title for women did not become a social and political issue until the 1970s, it was originally introduced in the 1930s and was used to some extent in the business community in the 1950s. During the woman’s movement that began in the 1960s in the United States, the term was promoted by feminists whose aim was to have a title in widespread use which was equal to the men’s title Mr., which does not indicate marital status. Thus, Ms. was intended to be used for all women: married and unmarried, divorced and widowed, lesbian and straight, conservative and liberal. Previous research on Ms. shows that the title was never fully adopted and has rarely been seen as neutral. Essentially, three different paradigms for female titles are present in U.S. society. The fi rst is the traditional paradigm, with marital status marked on Mrs. and Miss for women, but with one title, Mr., for men, regardless of marital status. The second paradigm has equivalent terms for men and women—Mr. and Ms.—and these terms apply to all adults. The third paradigm involves the use of Ms. alongside Mrs. and Miss to create a three-way distinction for female, while retaining only the title Mr. for men. Within this pattern, Ms. denotes a grown-up but unmarried woman; that is, it is a title for women who feel they are too old to be called the childish title of Miss but are not married and thus cannot be called Mrs. The social patterning of these three different paradigms is complex. The details of such patterning on a university campus in the South Midlands of Uses and Meanings of the Female Title Ms. 181 the United States is the subject of this paper. However, it must be noted that in addition to the variation across groups of speakers, there is also much intraspeaker variability—that is, individual speakers will sometimes apply one set of rules to select a code, and sometimes another. This variability is shown in the current study and is supported by the many discussions of title use with students, friends, colleagues, and family members which have been triggered by this research project. Some speakers like the traditional pattern, but use Ms. in business contexts. Other speakers have adopted the use of Ms. as a neutral title but make exceptions when they know that a woman’s preference is to be called Miss or Mrs. Some speakers, as evidenced in Lillian (1993), use Ms. for certain types of women regardless of marital status—usually women who hold nontraditional jobs or have ambiguous relationships. The pattern of use of Ms. for young adult women who are unmarried is inherently variable, and the results in this study show that the categories of ‘young’ and ‘adult’ show cutoffs that range from 18 to 50. Finally, speakers—most notably, many of the students at my university I have spoken to or who participated in this survey—do not have a clear meaning of Ms. at all, or have meanings (such as ‘abbreviation for Miss’) which are shared by only a small minority of their peers. Thus, although the following quantitative analysis shows clear patterns of interspeaker and intergroup variation in a university setting, the complexity of these patterns could be further explained by a qualitative study of the social meanings and values of the title Ms. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON MS . Much of the previous research on Ms. has dealt with attitudes toward this title. In two experimental studies, Heilman (1975) collected experimental data about attitudes toward course instructors with different titles from Yale University students and from high school seniors in a New York City school. The participants were given the task of rating course descriptions, which varied in terms of the content (one description had been verifi ed as being more technical than the other) and the use of Miss, Ms., Mrs., or Mr. with the initials and last name of the instructor. Heilman found that female instructors of courses of a nontechnical nature who chose one of the two more traditional titles (Mrs. or Miss) were at a disadvantage; students were more willing to take courses offered by instructors who used the title Ms. and rated these courses as having higher potential intellectual advantage. This study indicates that Ms. is perceived as a more appropriate title for university instructors, especially of material deemed technical. american speech 80.2 (2005) 182 Other sources from the 1970s and 1980s also indicate that in professional settings, Ms. is viewed more positively and is less controversial than in personal interactions. A study by Dion (1987) shows both sides of this issue; while the positive attributes of being achievement oriented and socially assertive are associated with Ms.-titled women, so is the negative attribute of being less interpersonally warm. Further research on this issue by Dion and Cota (1991) shows that Ms.-titled women are more apt than women with Miss or Mrs. titles to be assigned agentive traits traditionally deemed “male,” such as independence or competitiveness, including traits considered positive for men but negative for women (e.g., aggressiveness). Parallel to these fi ndings are the results of Murray (1997), a large-scale survey of attitudes toward Ms. in the Midwestern United States. Overall, Ms. is associated with women who are independent, outspoken, feminist, and very likely to work outside the home, but who are viewed as less friendly, less attractive, less likely to make a good wife and mother, and less likely to enjoy cooking or going to church than women titled Miss or Mrs. Several studies (Erlich and King 1992, 1994; Mills 2003) look at how this image of Ms.-titled women is socially constructed. Erlich and King show that the adoption of Ms. does not necessarily lead to nonsexist usage of female titles; instead, Ms. has taken on a meaning that is not neutral in terms of marital status, but indicates ‘mature yet unmarried adult female’. This meaning of Ms., as will be discussed below, is also found in this study. Lillian (1993) looks at data from a survey on female title use which asks respondents to pretend that they are working on a mailing list for their company. Given a short description of 15 women, they must decide how to address them, that is, whether to use Ms., Miss, or Mrs., and whether to use their birth name, their partner’s last name (if relevant), or a hyphenated name (if given). At the end of the survey, respondents are asked which title they prefer for themselves, and what each female title mean to them. Lillian’s survey was distributed to undergraduate students at two Canadian universities. Because her population was homogeneous with regard to age and ethnicity, the only demographic factor she analyzed was sex, and she did not fi nd sex of respondent to be signifi cant overall. Her results, as indicated by the title of her article (“She’s Still a Bitch, Only Now She’s Older!”) are in line with the fi ndings in attitudinal studies. Lillian’s data show that although there is awareness of Ms. as a neutral title, it is not used across the board; instead, it is more likely to be used for women who have less traditional social profi les (e.g., are not in legally sanctioned heterosexual relationships or practice traditionally male occupations). Uses and Meanings of the Female Title Ms. 183 DATA AND METHODOLOGY The survey done for this study is a replication of Lillian’s survey, using the same 15 profi les of women in Lillian’s survey (Q1–Q15) and similar openended questions about the meaning of each title (see the appendix for a complete copy of the survey). This study seeks to expand on Lillian’s work by comparing responses from faculty, staff, and students and analyzing these data in terms of race, age, and level of education in addition to sex. The student surveys (N = 291) were collected in large, general-enrollment courses at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC), and thus this sample refl ects the general composition of the undergraduate student body in terms of sex, age, and ethnicity.1 Surveys from nonnative speakers of English were eliminated from the sample, as there were too few to provide a database from which to compare native and nonnative speaker responses. The faculty (N = 74) and staff (N = 61) surveys were collected by an undergraduate research assistant who approached faculty and staff in different buildings on campus. Although this sampling method was less random, it did include faculty from all nine colleges at the university and staff in a wide range of positions (clerical, professional, maintenance, etc.), and a sampling of members of different ethnic groups and both sexes.2 As with the students, nonnative speakers’ surveys were eliminated from the sample. Responses to the 15 questions on title selection, along with coded demographic data, were entered into a database for analysis. For the statistical analysis, data were analyzed in terms of Ms. answers versus all other answers. A one-way ANOVA was run to assess the signifi cance of fi ve variables (occupational status, level of education, race, age, and sex) for overall answers of Ms. versus Miss and Mrs. answers, and also for individual questions. That is, this test shows if the difference between the rate of selection of Ms. and the rate of selection of Miss and Mrs. was statistically signifi cant or if it could have occurred by chance if participants gave random answers. A two-way ANOVA was run to assess interactions between variables. This test shows if two variables must be combined to correlate with patterns of responses (e.g., if an intersection between the variables of age and sex explains the groups which differ in their use of Ms.). Finally, when signifi cant differences were found between groups, the Tukey post-hoc analysis was performed to ascertain which groups were signifi cantly different from each other. For example, when level of education was signifi cant, the Tukey posthoc analysis indicated which specifi c levels of education were signifi cantly different from each other and which were not. All reports of statistical signifi cance assume a p -value of .05 or less. american speech 80.2 (2005) 184 RESULTS BY DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS There are some general differences between Lillian’s fi ndings and those reported here. First, while Lillian did not fi nd a signifi cant difference between male and female respondents when she combined the populations from the two universities, in this study sex is shown to be a signifi cant factor in responses among the student population. A second marked difference between Lillian’s data and mine is found in the results to the fi nal questions of the survey, on the meanings of the titles. Although Lillian’s student respondents explicitly indicated that Ms. was a neutral or default title and associated it with feminism, in my survey such answers were given exclusively by my faculty population. The next section briefl y summarizes the results of the meanings given to the title by students and faculty in the open-ended questions. Data on each of the demographic factors (occupational status, education, race, sex, and age) and signifi cant fi ndings follow. The subsequent section deals with differences in answers to individual questions, that is, which descriptions of women triggered the most Ms. answers. The fi nal section discusses these results. MEANINGS OF THE THREE TITLES Answers to the fi nal questions on the survey, which ask respondents what the three female titles mean to them and if any title is equivalent to the male title Mr., clearly indicate that while the faculty have a fairly homogeneous understanding of these titles, the students do not. Of the faculty surveyed, 82.4% gave answers that showed that Miss means ‘young, unmarried’, Mrs. indicates ‘married woman’, and Ms. is a neutral title that can be used for all women. One of the 13 respondents who did not follow this pattern answered that he did not use either Mrs. or Miss; the 12 remaining respondents indicated that Mrs. is used to designate a married woman but had varying meanings for Miss and Ms., often equating these two titles. Thus, there is a great deal of consensus about the meanings of these titles among the faculty. The only variation is in the meaning of Ms. and, to a lesser extent, Miss, for the 17.6% of respondents who did not defi ne them as neutral and ‘young, unmarried’, respectively. The student responses show no such homogeneity. Not only was there a great deal of variation across respondents, but many of the surveys showed what appear to be internal inconsistencies, for example, giving the answer ‘young, under 18’ for the meaning for Miss, and then listing Miss as the equivalent of Mr. Uses and Meanings of the Female Title Ms. 185 Nonetheless, the answers given for these three questions provide an interesting background about the possible meanings of titles for undergraduate students. Because of the large number of surveys and the many different answers given, the tally for the answers given was made by counting the different meanings given for each title; they are not cross-referenced. In addition, some respondents gave more than one meaning, such as, ‘widowed or divorced’ or ‘independent, older woman’; in this case, the answers were counted in each category named. Thus, the total number of meanings given is larger than the number of surveys, and the percentages cited below refl ect how many respondents out of the total possible number of respondents gave this answer. Mrs. is the only title which elicited overall agreement, meaning, as with the faculty, ‘married woman’; 225 (77.3%) of the student responses included this meaning. Of these, 7 further specifi ed that it is used for a married woman if she has taken her husband’s last name, a consideration which was never mentioned on the faculty surveys. Eight of the respondents gave the meaning of ‘widow’ for Mrs., usually in addition to stating that it meant ‘married’. Seven respondents felt that this title indicated that a woman was ‘older’, which was indicated by this exact term as well as others (‘old lady’, ‘middle-aged’, etc.). No other meanings were given by more than 1% of the respondents. The meanings given for Ms. show the most variation. The most popular answer, given by 42.2% of the student respondents, was ‘not married’ or ‘single’, which is in clear contrast to the faculty’s majority meaning of neutrality in terms of marital status. The second most popular answer, given by 30.5%, indicated that the meaning of Ms. has to do with age. The terms used to describe this included ‘older’, ‘mature’, and ‘grown-up’, and the ages given ranged from over 18 to over 50. Another meaning of Ms. which differs from the faculty answers is ‘divorced or separated’, which was given by 16.5% of the undergraduate students. Sixteen (5.5%) also included widowed, and 9 (3.1%) indicated that Ms. can mean a woman is married but did not take her husband’s last name. None of the responses included ‘feminist’ or any similar term except ‘independent’, which was given by only 11 (3.8%) of the undergraduate respondents, and might be more of a synonym with ‘adult’ or ‘older’ than ‘feminist’. The faculty meaning of this term—neutral, used for all women—was given by only 21% of the respondents, although a quarter of these (13) did not explicitly mention neutrality in terms of marital status. Finally, meanings for Miss also varied among the undergraduate respondents, but there was greater consensus around two characteristics. ‘Unmaramerican speech 80.2 (2005) 186 ried’ was the most popular answer, with 29.9%, and ‘young’ was given 23.7% of the time. The combination of these two comprised another 26.1% of the respondents. Thus, 79.7% of the respondents gave the meaning of either young or unmarried, or both. The last question on the survey asked if any of these titles was equivalent to Mr. The undergraduate answers to this question varied widely, and it was clear that many did not understand the question as it was intended: there were a large number of ‘yes’ answers, some question marks and blanks, and a number of answers which indicated that Mr. was not equivalent to the female title because it was used for men, not women. Still others interpreted this question as asking if men and women had equal rights. Of the answers to the intended meaning of the question, the most common (28.2%) was that none of the titles was equivalent to Mr. The next most frequent answer was that all were equivalent to Mr. (21.3%), while Ms. and Mrs. were given by 16.2% and 8.2% of the student respondents, respectively. The title Miss was given by only one respondent, less than 1%. The faculty responses to this question were more straightforward. The most popular answer was Ms., which was given by 62.5% of the faculty respondents. Eight percent of the answers indicated that all of these titles were equivalent to Mr., and two respondents named Mrs. as the equivalent title. Three others said both Ms. and Mrs. were equivalent to Mr. However, 15 answers (20.3%) indicated that none of the female titles was equivalent to Mr. because, in the words of one of these respondents, “Ms. carries baggage that men don’t have to deal with.”