Don’t call me Miss ... I’m a doctor!
Lecturer flies off the handle after ‘sexist’ staff at airport check-in fail to use her academic title
AN academic has accused an airline of sexism after check-in staff called her ‘Miss’ instead of ‘Dr’ as she arrived for a flight.
After her experience at the check-in desk, Dr Siobhan O’Dwyer, who has a PhD, hit out at Qantas on Twitter ‘to highlight the everyday sexism experienced by professional women’.
But her post, which was liked by 8,500 people and re-tweeted more than 1,000 times, sparked a heated debate online, with many attacking Dr O’Dwyer for being ‘arrogant’. She later said she wished the post had not gone viral and had been left feeling ‘exhausted and depressed’ by the response.
The Australian, a senior lecturer in ageing and family care at the University of Exeter, tweeted on August 31: ‘Hey @ Qantas, my name is Dr O’Dwyer. My ticket says Dr O’Dwyer. Do not look at my ticket, look at me, look back at my ticket, decide it’s a typo and call me Miss O’Dwyer. I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss.’
The post prompted more than 4,000 comments, including mocking pictures and videos. One Twitter user said she was being ‘arrogant’, while others pointed out she wasn’t a ‘real’ doctor. Another accused her of having ‘first world problems’.
‘Your tweet is exactly about ego,’ one man wrote. ‘ How many male doctors write tweets to Qantas complaining they get called Mr and not Dr? If they did, they would cop exactly same the responses as you.’
Another added: ‘You’re an academic doctor. Get over yourself. Ivory towers vs saving lives. No comparison. Pretentiousness vs real action. Again no comparison. You One have Twitter some user ego posted MISS O’Dwyer.’ an image of an Austin Powers film character with the phrase: ‘Boooo-hoooo.’
Arsen Ostrovsky posted: ‘ It’s great and all you have a PhD...But tone down on the ego, Ok?’ Several academics tweeted support for Dr O’Dwyer. But Dr Mel Thomson risked inflaming the issue further by referring to air stewardesses as ‘trolley dollies.’ She wrote: ‘I’ll be damned if some trolley dolly gets to decide what honorific I get called.’ Dr Darren Saunders said: ‘Wow, responses to this are a nasty blend of anti-intellectualism and sexism.’ Yesterday Dr O’Dwyer declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail.
But in later tweets she insisted the post had nothing to do with her ‘ego’. ‘It was about highlighting one of a thousand instances of sexism that women encounter every day,’ she wrote.
‘It’s not about the title – it’s about the fact that this wouldn’t have happened if I was a man.’
She added: ‘Ten years ago when I got my PhD, I went into the bank and said I wanted to change my title. The woman said “Congratulations! What’s your married name?” – Sigh.’
A spokesman for the Australian airline said the company stood by its staff. He said: ‘We are extremely proud of our cabin crew who respectfully serve our customers day in and day out and play a vital safety role.’