The lozenge has for many centuries been particularly associated with women as a vehicle for the display of their coats of arms (instead of the
escutcheon or shield). In modern English and Scottish, but not Canadian, heraldry, the arms of an unmarried woman and of widows are usually shown on a lozenge rather than an escutcheon, without
crest or
helm. An oval or
cartouche is occasionally also used instead of the lozenge for such women.
Married women, however, always display their arms on a shield (except peeresses in their own right, who use the lozenge for their peerage arms even during marriage).
The shield of a married woman (and the lozenge of a widow) may combine her own arms with the arms of her husband, either by
impalement side by side or (in the case of an
heraldic heiress in
English heraldry, but not Scots) in the form of a small "escutcheon of pretence" displaying the wife's arms over a larger shield (or, in the case of a widow, lozenge) of her husband's arms.