A woman with a high public profile who has earned a doctorate should have the right to use that title. The real question is why anyone would ask her to stop using it?
Our phones buzzed last weekend with texts linking to an op-ed by Chicago native and essayist Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal, imploring Dr. Jill Biden to drop the “Dr.” His main reasons: She is not a medical doctor and her doctorate, in education, is not worthy of the title. There have already been plenty of Twitter comments and thought pieces deriding the op-ed, but we felt the need to weigh in again and stand up for Dr. Biden, a woman we hold in high regard, and her doctorate, the same one we both are pursuing. We also want to stand up for the teaching profession, one that has historically been dominated by women and is still too often dismissed as “less than” other professions, like law and medicine. So please, take a seat, Mr. Epstein, as you are about to be schooled. Dr. Biden earned two master’s degrees as well as a doctorate. Epstein, who earned only a bachelor’s degree and received only an honorary doctorate, is not her equal in the academic world. Yet at the outset of his sexist argument, he calls Dr. Biden “kiddo.” Dr. Biden plans to continue teaching when she becomes first lady. Taking on a dual role is nothing new to educators. Cuts to public education over the years have forced many teachers to do more with less — purchasing their own school supplies, managing large classes without an aide, working in schools without social workers, librarians, or nurses.
