What is the female counterpart of mister?

Answer 1

The noun 'mister' is a general word for addressing an adult male.

The noun 'ms' (pronounced 'miz') is a general word for addressing an adult female.

Until the twentieth century, an adult female was addressed as Miss (if single) or Mrs. (if married or widowed), originally for Mistress but rarely used in its full form, most often pronounced Misses.

Because a noun of address for a male was not based on marital status, by the nineteen-seventies, the term Ms or Ms. was adopted by society as a way to address an adult female when the marital status was unknown or unnecessary.