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I am constantly annoyed by people assuming that since I am a woman, I must be either a Miss or a Mrs. I find this assumption upsetting for many reasons.

Miss to me refers to a little girl, not to a grown woman, and Mrs. is only for a woman who is married and has taken her husband's name. So as an unmarried, grown woman, neither of those names is appropriate. Instead, I would prefer Ms., which is often not recognized as a possibility.

But in fact I happen to be Dr. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't go around bragging about this, but when people ask me if I am Miss or Mrs., I immediately reply, "Actually, I'm Dr."

Why do people believe that Miss and Mrs. are the only two possible options for women? Why don't they consider that women may have advanced degrees? And what about women who married but haven't changed their last names? Or women who are unmarried and are adults?

How hard is to think of women as something other than girls or wives?

--Dr. Curly