The other day I was walking home. A father was pushing his child in a stroller. The small child was calling out "what's that? what's that?" as children are wont to do. The child pointed at me and, predictably said "what's that?" The father answered "that's a person", I smiled. I was not being explained as a woman, a lady or a girl, but a person, felt good. Maybe that's why I have some issue with being referred to as Miss or Mrs. in school. The students seem incapable of saying just Ms. They don't even seem to know what it all means. Maybe I should teach them about that?
When I worked in preschool I was referred to y my first name, or simply as "teacher". Doctors are referred to as Doctor, Nurses as Nurse, Actors as actors....why are the titles in teaching still gendered, and why do women so often choose to be addressed with reference to their marital status? I would just go by my first name but am not allowed to according to school policy. In the U.S., the Emily Post Institute states that Ms. is the default form of address for business correspondence with a woman. If we are truly professionals, I think we at least deserve to be Ms.
In case YOU are not sure what the difference is, here is it (thank you wikipedia):
Ms (UK) or Ms. (USA) (pronounced /mɪz/ or /məz/[1]) is an English honorific used with the last name or full name of a woman. As with Mrs. and Miss, Ms. is a contraction of the honorific "Mistress", which is the feminine of "Mister" or "Master". Unlike Miss and Mrs., however, Ms. is used properly of married, divorced, or unmarried women and therefore does not denote marital status.
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