Ms is the equivalent in English. It was started in the 1970s to avoid the Mrs/Miss problem.
It's actually much older. It was a 17th C. abbreviation for "Mistress," that later fell into disuse. Mrs. and MIss are also from "Mistress," which was originally the feminine of "Master" and had no connotation of adultery. Both words were used for people of enough status to have control or authority over others in a household. Mistress was originally used for both married & unmarried women.
Someone unearthed a 1901 newspaper article proposing Ms. and even suggesting pronunciation.
>The abbreviation "Ms" is simple, it is easy to write, and the person concerned can translate it properly according to circumstances. For oral use it might be rendered as "Mizz," which would be a close parallel to the practice long universal in many bucolic regions, where a slurred Mis' does duty for Miss and Mrs alike. Source.
Before that, the earliest known American source was thought to be
>nearly half a century later, from 1949. In The Story of Language, Mario Pei wrote: "Feminists, who object to the distinction between Mrs. and Miss and its concomitant revelatory features, have often proposed that the two present-day titles be merged into a single one, 'Miss' (to be written 'Ms.')."
As early as 1952, the National Office Management. Association said "Use abbreviation Ms. for all women addressees. This modern style solves an age-old problem."
