So, I just have to talk about this a little more. It has been eating at me all weekend and I won't be able to settle without getting all my thoughts out. Here is my original Facebook post about the Wall Street Journal article where the writer, Joseph Epstein, encourages Dr. Jill Biden to drop the "doctor" honorific.
Have you seen the WSJ article encouraging Dr. Jill Biden to drop the doctor title? Take a look at just one paragraph. There are SO many things wrong with it. Let’s dissect it just a tiny bit:
1. “Kiddo, a bit of advice” - can we talk about the condescension here? Nice to know misogyny is alive and well (as if I could forget).
2. “Doctor sounds and feels fraudulent” - there is nothing fraudulent about a person who has worked hard to earn a doctoral degree using the appropriate title that degree provides. Maybe Mr. Epstein is confused because he doesn’t have a doctoral degree, but as someone who does, I can tell you this is literally how it works. Also, when I got my doctorate, I had two babies, one of whom was experiencing significant medical challenges and was in and out of the hospital. I spent years going to night school to finish my J.D. It was so much work and I am incredibly proud of it. I never shy away from that accomplishment and would never expect someone else to shy away from theirs. Lawyers are not called Dr. but I have letters behind my name and I will use them because I earned them.
3. Calling yourself a doctor is “a touch comic” because you have an Ed.D. or doctor of education - Wow. So a doctor of education is laughable? My mother in law, Dr. Charlene Nunley, has an Ed.D. and there is no other person I can think of who has done more for her community and cared more about helping students improve their lives than her. For almost a decade, she was the president of the largest community college in the state of Maryland. She literally has a building named after her at one of the three college campuses. She was also the FIRST woman to be president of that college. Her work has been important, even life changing, for thousands of people.
4. “No one should call himself “Dr.” unless he has delivered a child” - oh, is that how it works? Then I guess I’m a doctor three times over because that’s how many children I’ve delivered. And if that’s the case, how could a man ever really be a doctor?
This country is blessed to have women like my mother in law and Dr. Jill Biden showing our daughters what they can achieve through hard work, sacrifice and devotion to their goals and beliefs. You better believe I will ONLY EVER be referring to her as DR. Jill Biden from now on.
This paragraph is bad enough, but the way Mr. Epstein closes his article is even worse: "Forget the small thrill of being Dr. Jill," he writes, "and settle for the larger thrill of living for the next four years in the best public housing in the world as First Lady Jill Biden."
Let's be clear about what he is saying here. He is saying that Jill Biden's work and accomplishments, her important career as an educator with all the work and sacrifice it involved and still involves (she has continued to teach THIS WHOLE TIME), should not be considered as important as being the wife of an important man. Her individual accomplishments, career, her individual identity, should be put aside so she can prioritize the accomplishments of her husband and be known only by the marital title associated with her husband's job. HOW IS THIS EVEN REMOTELY ACCEPTABLE RHETORIC IN 2020??!! Can you imagine any scenario where a man with a doctorate is told to drop the Dr. honorific? It would not happen. It happens to women constantly. If you need evidence of it, check Twitter (or any social media platform) where women with doctorates are flooding the Internet with their personal experiences of this type of misogyny.
I think there must be a lack of understanding about the amount of work t it takes for a woman, especially a mother, to get a doctorate degree (or any degree for that matter). I shared a little of my experience above but let me paint a clearer picture.
First, let me just say that getting my law degree was incredibly important to me personally and professionally. Its value to me for my own personal growth, as well as the skills and knowledge I gained to help me advocate for my children, cannot be adequately measured. I am a changed human being because of the work and experiences of those years of my life. It took my five years to get my juris doctorate (usually it takes 3 years). I loved law school and did very well, ranking at 8th in my class of 300 students. I was asked to be a teaching assistant, won highly sought paid internships and was hired by the office of Academic Support to be a tutor for struggling students. After my second year of law school, I gave birth to my first child and took a semester off. Two weeks after I started back at school, now going in the evenings after Justin got home from work, June had her first seizure. I ended up unenrolling and taking a second semester off as we were in and out of the hospital for the next six months dealing with the most stressful and scary situations a parent can imagine. I started back to school a year after June was born. After being a primary caretaker of a medically fragile child all day, I drove 30 minutes to Baltimore for evening classes to finish my degree. I have a VERY supportive spouse who made this possible, but even with his help, the work involved in getting my degree was incredibly difficult. We were still in and out of the hospital with June's medical challenges. Justin was working full time providing our health insurance so hospital stays fell almost entirely on my shoulders and the shoulders of loving family members who could fly out to help. I remember one time in particular when June was in the hospital for a week starting a new treatment, the ketogenic diet. It also happened to be finals week for me. I also happened to be 10 months pregnant with my second child. At one point, I drove away from the hospital (my mother in law stayed with June) and straight to the law school to take a final exam. I was 1 week from my due date (Rafe ended up coming three days early). This type of situation is one only women and mothers experience. Women are still the primary caretakers of their children and often have to make incredible sacrifices that their male counterparts simply do not have to make. Writing papers when children are napping, waking up early to do laundry and accomplish household tasks before others wake up, managing the mental load of meal planning and doctor's appointments for everyone and errand-running while also studying the rules of evidence and studying for a final exam that literally decides your whole grade! Balancing it all was excruciating. So many times I wanted to quit. The fathers I went to law school with did not experience the same burden. Thankfully, with the help and support of family, friends, and professors, I fought my way through and graduated magna cum laude with a certification in Mediation on the same weekend my second child turned 1. Getting my diploma that day was a HUGE deal. HUGE. I do not take it for granted because I know that so many women, especially women from marginalized groups who would make incredible lawyers with the power to advocate for issues uniquely suited to their voice and experience, do not have the same levels of support and resources to get an education.
I do not currently work as a lawyer. Having a child with a rare disease changes a lot of things for our family, including my ability to work outside the home. I don't know what the future holds but my law degree is utilized in many ways regardless, especially as I get more involved in advocacy work for children with special needs and medical challenges. I may not be called "Dr." but I will proudly sign my name Kristy Nunley J.D. or Kristy Nunley Esquire when the situation calls for it.
Last thing. Several years ago, my family was walking out of church to get into our vehicle. A decal on the back window of our car said "University of Baltimore Law School." Another family was getting into their car at the same time. The husband looked at the decal and said, "Oh, your husband went to University of Baltimore Law School?" I responded, "I did." His eyes widened in surprise and he said, "Huh," and got into his car and drove away. His assumption has always stuck with me. We need to support women. We need to create an atmosphere of encouragement for women. We need to celebrate women's accomplishments. In case you can't tell, I feel SO strongly about this. I was raised by strong women, women who are educators by profession. I am proud to have a first lady who is also an educator. In my opinion, the title First Lady Dr. Jill Biden is EXACTLY what we need.
