Why we use women’s professional titles less than men’s

Thus, titles can be especially important to demonstrate the expertise of women who might appear youthful. “I have had students in the past address me as ‘Miss Porras’, and in those cases, I point out that women are less likely to be referred as ‘Dr’ after finishing their degrees than men,” explains the 33-year-old Porras. “Right after I graduated and started my current postdoctoral position, I would introduce myself and people would react to say, ‘You have a PhD? You are a doctor? You look so young!’ But I never heard people say similar things to my colleagues who are white men.”

Indeed, in academia, some men say they prefer to drop their titles to foster more informal relationships with colleagues and students. Not all women can afford to make the same choice, as their expertise is less likely to be taken for granted. Kretzenbacher believes that the gendered difference is “an expression of male privilege – that you as a male academic, you get the benefit of the doubt that you’re an expert, or that you are a professor or a doctor or something”. That benefit of the doubt gets extended to women, and certain types of women, less often.

Yet insisting on a title can backfire. In 2018, health lecturer Siobhan O’Dwyer was slammed for criticising Qantas staff for calling her ‘Miss’ rather than ‘Dr’, the title that appeared on her air ticket. O’Dwyer’s point was that there was a disparity between men and women being called Dr, yet detractors (male and female alike) sneered that she was a ‘needy’, ‘crazy, entitled & vain feminist’ who need to watch her ‘ego’, ‘sweetie’. 

Devaluing women’s expertise 

In fact, there’s abundant evidence that women’s professional titles are used by others far less frequently than men’s titles. Some of the clearest data comes from the medical field.