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Should All Ph.D.'s Be Called 'Doctor'? Female Academics Say Yes

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On the first day of class, Debbie Gale Mitchell, a chemistry professor at the University of Denver, introduced herself to her students, telling them about her Ph.D. and her research. She told her students they could call her either “Dr. Mitchell” or “Debbie.” A male colleague had told her that he went by his first name and that students were friendlier as a result, so Mitchell decided to try it. Many students chose to call her “Debbie.”

Then one day a student asked if she thought she’d ever get a Ph.D.

“I discovered that for me, the use of my title is VITAL to remind students that I am qualified to be their professor,” Mitchell wrote on Twitter.

Mitchell’s story was just one among hundreds shared last summer on social media calling attention to the way gender affects how professionals are addressed, especially those who hold a doctorate.

The discussion comes at a time when research studies into gender bias are increasingly confirming that how a person is addressed is linked to perceptions of their status.

The Twitter conversation branched from multiple roots. On June 7, Eric Kelderman, reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, sent out a critical tweet of a female academic who responded to his media inquiry by suggesting that he should have used “Professor” or “Doctor” (the tweet has since been deleted). The next day, a doctor from the U.K., David Naumann, criticized doctors, medical or otherwise, who use their title in a nonprofessional setting. And a few days later the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, announced revised style guidelines wherein only medical doctors would be referred to using “Dr.”, a convention that is already used most of the time by the Associated Press and news outlets that follow AP Style  (including KQED). What followed was an explosion of opinions and experiences revolving around titles, expertise, and gender and racial bias.

Many Ph.D. holders are fine with reserving the title for medical doctors in common parlance, viewing insistence on the title as arrogant and elitist, and do not use their titles even in a scholarly setting. But for women and people of color, an academic title can be a tool to remind others of their expertise in a world that often undermines it.

Some Ph.D. holders who insist on titles say that they actually prefer their first names. But given the discrepancy in usage, some women feel they must use and defend their titles, especially where the alternative is a gendered title like “Ms.”, “Mrs.”, or “Miss”. Fern Riddell, a Ph.D.-holding historian, wrote:

My title is Dr Fern Riddell, not Ms or Miss Riddell. I have it because I am an expert, and my life and career consist of being that expert in as many different ways as possible. I worked hard to earned my authority, and I will not give it up to anyone. — Dr Fern Riddell (@FernRiddell) June 13, 2018

Following backlash to the tweet, which described her as “arrogant” and “immodest,” Riddell coined the hashtag #ImmodestWomen, encouraging hundreds of women to change their Twitter handles to include “Dr.” or share experiences of bias. Riddell later wrote about the rationale behind the hashtag, saying that “we define women by their ability to be well behaved.” #ImmodestWomen was “retaliation.”

The tweets show “Dr.” is preferred by many women because it is both unrelated to marital status and gender-neutral, unlike “Mrs.”, “Miss”, or “Ms”. Several tweets described situations where a woman’s husband or colleague was referred to as “Dr.” (whether or not he actually had a doctorate) while she got “Mrs.” or a first name.

My pastor has her PhD. She was interviewed by a local newspaper along with another male member of clergy, NOT a PhD.. HE was referred to as “Reverend Smith”, SHE was called “Paula”. Seriously. — Head To Toe Organizers (@HTTOrganizers) June 11, 2018

In other anecdotes, female doctors (M.D. and Ph.D. alike) were met with utter confusion when they answered the phone to a caller looking for “Dr.”, or presented an airline ticket bearing the title. Even in 2018, with women making up 34 percent of active physicians and more than half of medical school matriculants and doctorate recipients , many people assume that “Dr.” refers to a man.

Bias in forms of address and use of titles is not limited to gender, many participants in the Twitter discussion pointed out. People of color with doctorates are also often not given the courtesy of their title, which echoes a long history of racially biased uses of titles. History professor Charles W. McKinney wrote:

Wanna know why my students will always call me “Dr. McKinney”? Because one day in 1980 I went to the store with my 75 yr old Grandmother Melida Thomas. Clerk greeted two 20 yr old, white women in front of us with “Mrs” and said “Well, hello Melida” to my Grandmother. That’s why. — Charles W. McKinney (@kmt188) June 10, 2018

The bias reflected in these stories is backed up by data. Last year, a study from the Mayo Clinic found that female doctors were introduced by their first names, rather than a professional title, much more often than male doctors. And on June 25, researchers from Cornell University published results showing that female professionals are half as likely as their male colleagues to be referred to by their last names, a practice that is associated in the study with lower status.

“The way that we speak about others influences and is influenced by the way that we think about them,” wrote Stav Atir and Melissa J. Ferguson, authors of the recent paper.

Atir and Ferguson described eight different studies, covering forms of address in professor evaluations, talk radio and under experimental conditions. Across the board, female professionals were less likely to be referred to solely by their last name. They even found that fictional researchers who were described with last name only were perceived as better known, more eminent, higher status, and more deserving of awards.

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The researchers proposed several explanations for their results. It may be more culturally common to refer to men by their last names because they are thought to be more permanent, since women may change their last names when they marry. Alternatively, it could be that speakers use first names to identify a subject’s gender, and this is more common for women in male-dominated professions, where male is the assumed default. This type of bias could even result from attempts to highlight women’s participation by identifying their gender using first names.

“The consequences may be ironic,” wrote Atir and Ferguson, “leading to lower judgments of eminence, status, and deservingness.”

As Mitchell, the chemistry professor from the University of Denver, and other academics related on Twitter, one way of fighting this type of bias is to insist upon the title “Dr.”

But other Ph.D. holders question whether insisting on titles is the best strategy. Meena Kandasamy, a poet and writer with a Ph.D. in sociolinguistics, rarely uses her title and did not change her Twitter handle. She questioned the practice of elevating those who earned doctorates over those who have not had the opportunity to do so:

For every one of us who has managed to float up and breathe from that cesspool with a doctorate degree above our heads–we must remember our sisters sent home, their dreams crushed, their futures messed up, academia behaving like one petty thug-gang to have the backs of a few men — meena kandasamy (@meenakandasamy) June 14, 2018

Critics argue that titles do not necessarily reflect how hard one has worked or even level of expertise, and that the most equal solution is fewer titles, not more. But supporters say that claiming the titles is the best choice under the present circumstances. Elissa Harbert, a musicologist, wrote:

I support #ImmodestWomen . As a PhD and professor, I currently use Dr. as my title professionally. My relationships with students improved when I switched to Dr., even though in a perfect world I’d use my first name. It’s not a perfect world. — Dr. Elissa Harbert (@KyrieElissa) June 14, 2018

In some instances, women are less likely to exhibit bias in form of address. The Mayo Clinic study found female medical doctors introduced both men and women with a title more than 95 percent of the time. Men introduced their female colleagues with a title 49 percent of time, compared with 72 percent of the time for a male colleague. In the Atir and Ferguson study, male speakers on talk radio referred to women by last name less than half as often as they did for men, while female speakers did not have such a strong contrast. In other research on gender bias in academia and medicine, women were just as likely to treat men and women differently. As research epidemiologist Chelsea Polis related, implicit bias can extend to usage of titles for speakers and writers of any gender:

I was once quoted in a story where all men w/PhDs were “Dr. X” & all women w/PhDs were untitled. Writer (a woman) was mortified when I pointed it out. Claiming our titles publicly raises consciousness than women can/do have these credentials. I want young girls/women to see that. — Chelsea Polis, PhD (@cbpolis) June 10, 2018

While the evidence points to persistent bias in professional forms of address, the solution is not so clear. Highlighting women with doctorates, medical or otherwise, may provide an important reminder that woman are now earning nearly half of medical and research-based doctoral degrees. But bias in use of doctoral titles is just one example of the larger issue of gender bias, as Atir and Ferguson’s study demonstrates.

“We find evidence of a gender bias in the way that we speak about professionals in a variety of domains,” wrote Atir and Ferguson. Addressing the problem may require attention to bias in all arenas, from the classroom to the boardroom.

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How to Use Dr and PhD with a Name

In English, as in many other languages, professional titles have abbreviations. These are for writing convenience but people will sometimes annunciate them while speaking. Two of these, Dr and PhD, are very common references when talking about the specific name of a doctor.

Therefore, it means you’re referring to people and in this case, it’s a college-trained and licensed individual who practices things like medicine, psychology, science, mathematics or some other field of study. But, like with most other things in English grammar, there is a particular use of Dr and PhD.

To use “Dr” to indicate a doctor, most particularly in the fields of medicine and science, you will put it before a person’s name. You can indicate first and last name. But, if you want to be casual or informal, you can use Dr before only mentioning a first name.

Use only a last name after the “Dr to be formal or informal depending on the circumstances. This will often accompany a period (.) after the abbreviation of Dr.

Dr. Michael Yeadon

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny

Dr. Carrie is my physician.

Dr. Maloney has been a scientist for 35 years.

There are some people who receive doctorate degrees, the highest education one can receive in any given subject. While they are doctors, they aren’t medical, scientific or psychological doctors. For instance, they could have a doctorate in things like politics, journalism, economics or some other such thing.

Therefore, you say or write their name and follow it with PhD. to indicate Doctor of Philosophy. But, you can also use it to be superbly formal with a medical or scientific doctor. This means you can use both Dr and PhD in the same line. But, here, you will add a comma (,) after the last name.

Sarah Kimmons PhD

Dr. Shane Ammora, PhD

Mnemonic Device

To remember where to use Dr versus PhD, is that Dr will always come before a name and PhD will appear after. However, both can appear around the same name. Therefore, the following example is a visual for those who memorize best that way:

Dr. DOCTOR, PhD

Whenever you want to write or mention the name of someone who’s a doctor, you’ll either use Dr or PhD to indicate their title. But, Dr comes before and PhD will be after.

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Academia Insider

How to use the PhD title and all the little doctorate “rules”

There are many conventions in the academic world that can make it difficult to navigate the PhD title. The PhD title is awarded to those who have completed a doctoral degree but, not many people know how to use it once they have it.

This article will go through everything you need to know about using the PhD title and when you can start using it.

The “rules” are relatively simple and can be broken as they are not officially set in stone – other than when you can officially call yourself a doctor.

There is no one correct answer but it may be misleading if you use the PhD title incorrectly. Here are the recommendations for effective communication.

It very much depends on the setting. Here are some examples of how I would use my PhD titles awarded to me after my PhD degree.

How do you Write PhD correctly after a name? Is it ph d or phd?

It can be confusing to know exactly how to write PhD after your name. Which bits are capitalised? Is there a ‘.’ In the middle?

When writing a name with a PhD after it, the correct way to do so is to use “PhD” or “Ph.D. or Ph.D”

Depending on the preference of the individual, either form can be used.

However, if the individual has a business card that states their degree in full, then the more formal “Doctor of Philosophy” should be used.

It is important to note that using “PhD” without any periods is incorrect; this abbreviation should only be used in informal contexts such as emails or text messages. I tend to use PhD in my YouTube videos and some people have pointed out that this is incorrect…

Following the individual’s preferred format will ensure that their name and credentials are properly represented.

Should you use Dr as well as PhD?

Some people like to use Dr and PhD in their official titles. There are a couple of important points that you need to know about markers and academic titles.

  • A person can have more than one marker in their name. For example my full title is Dr Andrew Stapleton, PhD, MChem.
  • The doctor title at the front can be used as a variant to the PhD at the end.

It can be a little bit ambiguous if I was to use Dr Andrew Stapleton, PhD as there are two markers. This could mean that I have two PhD’s, it could mean that I have a PhD and a medical doctorate, or it could just be that I want to use both the doctor and the PhD tags for the one degree.

However, in my experience, I still like to use the doctor title at the front and the PhD tag at the end of my name for official purposes.

Academics would rarely use the PhD suffix in everyday communication. They would much rather just use the doctor title.

What is the proper title for a PhD?

The proper title for a PhD is Doctor of Philosophy. However, some teachers and professors like to be referred to without their official title.

If you are not sure about how your professor, lecturer, or friend with a PhD wishes to be officially addressed you can ask them.

Most of the time, I like to refer to my colleagues with their doctor title for official purposes, but I do not include the PhD at the end of their name. That is much better suited to a business card.

Your lecture may wish to be referred to as:

  • Dr [last name]
  • Dr [first name]

Asking them in the early stages of your relationship is the best way to work out which one they prefer.

If in doubt, always go for the more formal name and nomenclature.

When can you start to use your PhD title after your doctorate?

When you have earned your PhD, you can start using your title immediately. Although, it can be a little bit confusing as to when you have actually passed your PhD. Is it when you have submitted your dissertation? Is it when you have received the comments back?

The University of Adelaide says that you can use it from your conferral date:

Students can be conferred on one of five dates during the year and for PhD students the conferral date will be the first available following the completion of all the academic requirements of your degree, including final thesis lodgement and the disbursement of any outstanding financial obligations to the University.

I started using my PhD title as soon as my confirmation letter arrived at my house. It was the first letter from the University that referred to me as Dr Stapleton. It was incredibly excited.

Generally, it is acceptable to use the title “Dr.” both professionally and socially but socially, people very rarely use it – at least in Australia. But you should never use it if you are a PhD student, PhD candidate or enrolled in a PhD program without a previous PhD qualification. 

I do use it in professional settings but it always makes me feel a little bit awkward.

However, there may be some restrictions for certain settings. For example, if have a research degree resulting in a doctor title and you are working in a medical setting – some institutions do not like you to use Dr as it can confuse patients into thinking that you have a medical degree. 

Instead, they ask that you use the PhD tag at the end of your name rather than the doctoral title for official and professional communications.

What is the correct way to write PhD?

When writing about someone’s PhD, the correct way is to write the term in full and capitalize each letter.

This should be done for all academic degrees, not just PhDs.

For example, it would be “Doctor of Philosophy” or “PhD” instead of “Ph.D.”, “Dr.”, or “DPhil”.

Additionally, it is common to mention the field of study in which the degree was earned if known, such as “Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics”. It is also good practice to include the institution that granted the degree if it is a recognized one.

When writing about someone’s PhD, use proper capitalization and include relevant information like field of study and institution if known to ensure accuracy.

How do you put a PhD in a title?

Putting a PhD in a title is not as complicated as it may sound.

Generally speaking, the proper way to list a PhD in an academic or professional setting is by writing “Dr.” before the name, followed by the person’s full name and the appropriate abbreviations for their degree.

For example, if John Smith has earned a doctorate in psychology, his credentials would be listed as “Dr. John Smith, Ph.D.”

In some cases, such as when addressing someone formally in speech or on a business card, it may also be acceptable to list their credentials as “John Smith, Ph.D.”

Depending on context and personal preference, some people may also choose to list their higher degrees after their names by writing out the entire degree instead of just its abbreviation.

For example, John Smith could choose to write his full title as “John Smith, Doctor of Psychology”

However, I have not seen this in real academic life.

Should the font size of Ph.D. be the same as someone’s name?

The question of whether the font size of a Ph.D. should be the same as someone’s name is an interesting one.

On one hand, it could be argued that the Ph.D. deserves to be highlighted and therefore should be given a larger font size than someone’s name to denote its importance.

On the other, it could be argued that this would not be necessary or appropriate, and that treating everyone equally regardless of their title or degree is more important.

It depends on context and usage – if both names appear in the same document then they should likely have the same font size; however, if one appears in a formal setting such as a diploma or certificate, then it may make sense to give it a larger font size than someone’s name to emphasize its importance and significance.

Ph.Ds (or PhDs) are an important academic achievement and should be respected accordingly but without going overboard by giving them overly large fonts sizes which can take away from rather than add to their importance.

Wrapping up – doctoral title rules

this article has been over everything you need to know that using the PhD title properly and effectively.

The doctor title can be used in place of the PhD and for incredibly formal communications, such as a business email or card, you can use both.

However, sometimes using both can cause confusion as to whether or not there is a reason first using both the doctor and PhD tags. Nonetheless, many people still use both.

phd dr

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

Thank you for visiting Academia Insider.

We are here to help you navigate Academia as painlessly as possible. We are supported by our readers and by visiting you are helping us earn a small amount through ads and affiliate revenue - Thank you!

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IMAGES

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VIDEO

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COMMENTS

  1. Doctor (title)

    Former Vassar College president Catharine Bond Hill wearing doctoral robes. She has a doctorate and can thus carry the title of "Doctor". Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb docēre [dɔˈkeːrɛ] 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th ...

  2. Should All Ph.D.'s Be Called 'Doctor'? Female Academics Say Yes

    As a PhD and professor, I currently use Dr. as my title professionally. My relationships with students improved when I switched to Dr., even though in a perfect world I’d use my first name. It’s not a perfect world. — Dr. Elissa Harbert (@KyrieElissa) June 14, 2018. In some instances, women are less likely to exhibit bias in form of address.

  3. How to Use Dr and PhD with a Name

    Sarah Kimmons PhD. Dr. Shane Ammora, PhD. Mnemonic Device. To remember where to use Dr versus PhD, is that Dr will always come before a name and PhD will appear after. However, both can appear around the same name. Therefore, the following example is a visual for those who memorize best that way:

  4. How to use the PhD title and all the little doctorate “rules”

    For example, it would be “Doctor of Philosophy” or “PhD” instead of “Ph.D.”, “Dr.”, or “DPhil”. Additionally, it is common to mention the field of study in which the degree was earned if known, such as “Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics”. It is also good practice to include the institution that granted the degree if it ...

  5. Doctor of Philosophy

    A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: philosophiae doctor or doctor philosophiae) is the most common degree at the highest academic level, awarded following a course of study and research. The degree is abbreviated PhD (sometimes Ph.D. in the U.S.), from the Latin Philosophiae Doctor, pronounced as three separate letters (/ p iː eɪ tʃ ˈ d iː /, PEE-aych-DEE).