People Mastodon

I always viewed this more like: Men only get one title because nobody gives a fuck about men. Single, married, whatever. It's irrelevant. "Here, have a nice, generic title that means literally nothing other than you are male. Now get back to work so you can create some value for ~~your rich land owner~~ society!"

Unmarried women, however, have inherent (societal) value beyond their ability to work. That's why they get extra titles. It's the same reason why most societies don't use women in war.

Once you have that Mrs in front of your name, you're considered to have "succeeded." According to the old traditions, anyway. A married woman was viewed as having been put to work (by society). That was her primary job, and people cared a lot about it!

Of course, women were still expected to also do actual work but the sexist nature of these traditions meant that it didn't count for much. Mostly because "muscle" (ability to perform manual labor for a full 12-or-more hour work day) was what ran the economy. Serfs in the fields!