Alexander Buxton of The New Statesman discusses and excerpts Dr. Amy Erickson’s history of the title mistress in a September, 2014 article entitled Mistress, Miss, Mrs. or Ms: untangling the shifting of women’s titles. A fascinating and quick read, Buxton’s article manages to tease out the gist of Erickson’s work: that women were once mistresses of their own domain…until they weren’t.
The author gives a brief history of the term Mistress, Mrs. and Miss, citing Samuel Johnson, known writer and author of an early English language dictionary, who provides the following 18th Century definition of the term Mistress:
Neither “mistress” nor “Mrs” bore any marital connotation whatsoever for Dr Johnson. When in 1784 he wrote about having dinner with his friends “Mrs Carter, Miss Hannah More and Miss Fanny Burney”, all three women were unmarried. Elizabeth Carter, a distinguished scholar and lifelong friend of Johnson’s, was his own age and was invariably known as Mrs Carter; Hannah More and Fanny Burney were much younger and used the new style Miss.
Citing Erickson, Buxton writes that the title Mrs. and Miss contain the word Mistress and Mrs. was the female equivalent of Master, merely a term of address that delineated class or profession and not marital status. A woman of status or business profession was a Mrs. whereas a scullery maid was addressed by her first name or some man’s wife. How the term Mrs. became a distinction from Miss and the advent of Ms. are not covered in depth, but I suppose the more curious of us will have to peruse Dr. Erickson’s “Misresses and Marriage” in the autumn edition of the History Workshop Journal to find out.
In the gaze of the other 
Interesting item here, makes me think about it though. I never realized until now that when I say Mistress of the Dark, it means she is in charge of that area. But yet the word alone means something different to me. A female master is surely something cool, but it seems without some designated territory she is more like a the loose woman version rather than a fun time on the sly.
The one definition of the term certainly prevails now, but it is interesting that in some way the term Mrs was more liberating at an earlier date and is now more limiting in so far as women have to suffer a does ignation of marriage or non marriage which is not on par with men.
Yes, that’s right,… an unmarried or married man is a Mister, but after he’s married he would be less likely to be a Master of anything. I am one who believes the woman carries the balance of power in these things regardless what the common consensus may be.
If I were Erickson or Buxton I’d be wondering why women were given different status designations based on whether they were single, young, older, more wealthy, or whatever. Men always have had a single designation – Mr. – for any and every status they were or held in society regardless of age.