French ditch 'mademoiselle' label

PARIS -- In a victory for feminists, Prime Minister François Fillon has said the word "mademoiselle" would no longer be used in government documents, according to a spokeswoman yesterday.

"Madame or mademoiselle?" is a loaded question in France, where it is used both by men trying to establish a woman's "availability" and by government departments, banks, and private companies that still force women to categorize themselves as Mrs. or Miss.

In France, a man is a Mr., or monsieur, all his life, but women are either mademoiselles or mesdames for official and business purposes, depending on their marital status. It's a distinction that no longer exists in a number of Western countries. Germany in 1972 banned fraulein from official use. English-speaking countries give women the option of the neutral Ms.

The word mademoiselle comes from demoiselle, which used to be a title of nobility in pre-revolutionary France and only became linked with marital status during the Napoleonic era.

Since then, it has survived three government memos since 1967, all of which declared mademoiselle to have no legal standing. -- Deutsche Presse-Agentur