Mrs. Charles Darwin?

NPR.org provides an interactive article with a cartoon drawing of Emma Darwin, evolutionist Charles Darwin's wife. You can click on her body parts, and a box with two pictures--one of the chimp skeletal part and one of the human skeletal part--with accompanying dialogue, will appear. You get an overall idea of how our body parts evolved into the upright-walking form we are today. For example, human teeth are remarkably smaller than chimp teeth, and that's because as our ancestors started to make tools to cook food, they slowly no longer needed large molars to grind "hard seeds and grassy vegetation."

Overall, it's an interesting, highly informative piece. But I have one gripe:

Although Emma Darwin was most likely referred to as Mrs. Charles Darwin during her time, haven't we evolved since then? Today she would be Ms. Emma Darwin (or even Ms. Emma . . . and whatever her maiden name was). I think readers could have just as easily guessed who NPR was talking about if the article had been, "Ms. Emma Darwin's Advice For Walking Upright." Also, if we're going to click on her body parts, shouldn't we know just a smidgen (ha, funny word) more about her--like that she enjoyed outdoor sports (and was especially good at archery), was a pianist, and birthed 10 children?

I know the article is about Darwin's evolutionary theory, but NPR could have easily fit those few facts about Emma into one sentence without taking anything away from the main piece. In fact, all the inclusion would have done would be to enlighten readers a bit about Ms. Darwin.

I am sure plenty of people would roll their eyes at me (stop being a nit-picky feminist!), but I'm just saying . . . Although social evolution happens in a second compared to physical evolution (and with different processes), why not recognize both? Just because Emma's society saw her as belonging to her husband (hence the "Mrs. Charles Darwin") doesn't mean we have to. Especially since her husband's work no doubt helped break some of that (often faith-based) ownership.