France Does Away with 'Mademoiselle'

Official documents will now only ask if you're a 'madame' or a 'monsieur.'

The French government has ruled that it will no longer ask women to specify whether they want to be called "madame" or "mademoiselle" on official documents. As such, "mademoiselle" will be scratched from any passports, tax forms, drivers licences, and more. The move follows a campaign mounted by French feminists to correct what they felt was an unfair burden on women in France, as the two terms denote whether a woman is married (madame) or not (mademoiselle). There's no neutral term, like the English "Ms.", while the term for men, "monsieur", is used regardless of marital status. The move comes in an election year for France, leading campaigners to wonder whether the switch will actually be made official once elections are over. Either way, it gives us Anglos one less minefield to have to tiptoe around while attempting (but let's face it, likely failing) to woe young (or not-so-young) French women.