MADAME OR MADEMOISELLE?

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 18

MADAME OR MADEMOISELLE?

The. difference between married and unmarried women in France has been emphasised recently by a protest on the part of a spinster against beini* called Mademoiselle. Women, ehe maintained, should niter a certain age attain tho dignity, of Madame, with the independence and respect which is implied by the title. For a woman of fifty to Share with a chit of fifteen the same title i 3 an absurd convention, ■especially when a man.is always "Monsieur" whether ha is married or not. In France, of course, marriage present* very definite social advantages. .. In it a woman- achieves her Vife ambition; it gives her a career.'a superiority -over women who have been less successful... The word "Madame" is a real title of superiority, and as such .s disadvantageous to those who do net share it. With the larger number of unmarried women tho French '"spinster" will no doubt cease to be so much' of a, stage type, but that time is' not yet. The protest against being only "Mademoiselle" came from an elderly woman, ./ho had brought, up six children for a orother : in-law, and felt that she had earned the higher dignity. For a country in which women are fast obtaining equal' rights with men, the distinction would be even more absurd did it at all correspond to the general feeling. In England, however, where there are such large numbers of unmarried women, the diffev3nce between Mrs. arid Miss is no longer a difference, as it were, in rank. Nobody mmds being called "Miss." because there is very much more scope for. Misses In America the tendency to 1 drop both titles equalises women still more, and makes the distinction almost an anachronism. With true French pedantry* it has been sugegsted that nothing less than a law will pat the matter. rl ght for the Fr,enchwoman-a™w decreeing that after a certain age she shall be called Madame, which suggestion has also called forth the various Jtock from ?h mr^ B;- But jUSfc as b^s dide trom tha Christian or surname into the Mr., so, it is pointed out, might a airl slide from Mademoiselle 'into" Madame if.it so pleased lier. Even so, this "i gi!t g"c ™. d"c to the titles in usei v l' Femme > which are also in use in I ranee.