New York Times Adopted “Ms.” in 1986, 15 Years After Ms. Magazine Debut

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 15

1986 marked the point when The New York Times finally treated “Ms.” as a proper form of address, ending a long reluctance to use an honorific that did not signal marital status.
1901 provided the term’s earliest push in a Springfield, Mass., newspaper, which argued “Ms.” was a more comprehensive label for women than “Miss” or “Mrs.”
The idea failed to catch on for decades until Sheila Michaels, a 22-year-old civil rights worker, began promoting it again after spotting it on a piece of mail in the early 1960s.
Late-1960s discussion on New York radio helped spread the honorific, and The Times’ 1986 shift came 15 years after the launch of Ms. magazine.

Sources

If a civil rights worker had not noticed a strange typo on her mail, would women today still be defined by their marriages?

Why did one of the world's most influential newspapers refuse to use a simple two-letter title for over a decade?

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