The Need for Generalization

Once again, I've come to the realization that men have it easy.  I'm sure most of the women out there could list off situations that make the previous statement true.  Some situations including but not limited to: their lack of having to deal with child birth, labor pains, hormones, and that they can go to the bathroom standing up.   However, putting all those argument starters aside, I've got a new one for you. 

Men are politely referred to as Mr. ____ and that's it.

Women on the other hand feel the need to be labeled even more specifically. 

Ms.

           Miss.

                             Mrs.

Really?  Three options?  Mr. can be applied to a married or a single man so no matter what the situation, you are covered.   However, what happens when a lady is recently widowed?  If you say Ms. they could get extremely upset due to their loss, but if the next day they were waiting for the doors to open at the insurance office then maybe they would be upset if you called them Mrs.  You have to make a quick judge of character in order to get that one right.  What about Miss?  Does this apply to only 12 year old little girls or women wearing a ridiculous hat at a tea party?  Now in normal conversation these don't usually cause a problem because by now we have lost all respect for anyone and usually catch their attention by shouting "Hey You!"  However when you are trying to construct a letter to a person you just briefly spoke with on the phone, this decision is quite a stressful one. A lot of emotion can be attached to those prefixes.  Honestly, even if someone were to ask me which I preferred I probably wouldn't know the difference between Ms. and Miss anyways.  Does anyone have an algorithm that will solve my problem?