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This is a spin-off thread related to the misogynistic WSJ op-ed piece about Jill Biden using "Dr." because she has a doctorate. In it, I want to say something about doctorates (PhDs, EdDs, etc.) more generally: it is a real accomplishment to get one from a real university.
Some disciplines are harder than others, and it doesn't always mean the same thing from country to country, but it does mean something to earn a doctorate from an established school (like the University of Delaware) in the U.S. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, the
academic side of it typically involves a large amount of rigorous classwork, plus the mastering of the literature and knowledge of one's field--which is put to the test in multi-day oral & written examinations--and the completion of a significant original work of research in the
form of a dissertation (which also has to be passed by a committee of scholars). But those are just the academic requirements. There are other requirements as well, such as going into deep debt if you can't get funding or living in enforced poverty for years if you do get
the meager amount of funding that most programs offer. You may have to fund part or all of your own research in addition to tuition & costs. Let me just share a few aspects of what it was like for me to get my Ph.D.--which I'm sure fell no worse than the average experience.
Getting my Ph.D. required taking classes in which I was forced to buy the books of my instructors and their friends from grad school. It required spending countless hours as a research assistant doing things like going microfilm of hundreds of Confederate-era southern
newspapers looking for mentions of "Varina Davis," because the scholar I was assisting was writing a biography. It involved spending months in rat-trap hotels (I could afford no better) while doing dissertation research in Alabama, North Carolina, and Massachusetts.
It involved getting thankless jobs like temp work or business card typesetting if I could not obtain summer funding--and involved scrambling for free lance writing work to help pay the bills (and I was lucky: some programs forbid grad students from doing that). It involved
years of scrambling to pay bills, of fears of unexpected expenses, of going deeper into credit card debt (and, I should note, I had multiple fellowships and assistantships). It also involved trying to publish articles and present papers so that I would have a chance in hell of
getting a job when I did get my degree. I was actually lucky; I got my MA and Ph.D. in 7.5 years, when the average for my program was closer to 9 (generally the max amount of funding years was 6, btw). I know people who went through much worse than I did. One of my grad
school colleagues got her Ph.D. as a single mother working a full time job while raising two autistic children. How do they not give medals for that?
Also, keep in mind that, for many disciplines, there's no golden dream job at the end of the rainbow once you do get your Ph.D.
Also, keep in mind that, for many disciplines, there's no golden dream job at the end of the rainbow once you do get your Ph.D.
That's a whole different struggle.
So, bottom line, someone like Jill Biden doesn't just get a doctorate--they earn it, and typically the hard way. If you've earned one, go right ahead and put it on your business card. If you haven't, don't rush to judge someone who has.
So, bottom line, someone like Jill Biden doesn't just get a doctorate--they earn it, and typically the hard way. If you've earned one, go right ahead and put it on your business card. If you haven't, don't rush to judge someone who has.
