Jill Biden: Should she call herself ‘Dr.’?

Jill Biden has every right to go by the honorific “Dr.,” said Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. Last week, the cranky old white men who run The Wall Street Journal opinion page published a blatantly sexist column by 83-yearold essayist Joseph Epstein, who attempted to “publicly shame” the soon-to-be first lady for going by “Dr. Biden.” Because she’s not a medical doctor, Epstein said, the title “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to mention a touch comic.” He even addressed the 69-year-old professor as “kiddo” and “Jill,” and mocked the fact that she received a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007, not from an

Ivy League institution back when doctorates meant something. Not surprisingly, women were outraged. Jill Biden, who plans to continue to work full-time teaching at a community college, has explained in the past she uses “Dr. Biden” because she grew tired of being referred to as “Mrs. Biden” and wants to be seen as more than her “marital status.”

Epstein’s piece was admittedly “acerbic,” said editorial page editor Paul Gigot in The Wall Street Journal, but “America’s most prominent doctorate holder” is not off-limits from criticism. The avalanche of faux outrage this column incited was no doubt organized by Biden’s team to “use the big gun of identity politics to send a message to critics as it prepares to take power.” This issue has nothing to do with gender, said Jeff Jacoby in BostonGlobe.com. It would be fine if Biden asked students to call her “Dr.,” but in public settings it’s a bit pretentious for anyone to use that title unless they are in the field of medicine. Seeking status that way is a sign of “insecurity.”

Why is it anyone’s business if Jill Biden wants “to flaunt” a title she earned? asked Graeme Wood in TheAtlantic.com. White males may find it hard to understand, but “Dr.” holds special value for women, who are often assumed to be housewives or assistants, and black professors, often mistaken for “janitors.” Epstein’s parting insult was telling, said Monica Hesse in Washington Post.com. He advised Jill Biden to give up “the small thrill of being Dr. Jill” for the larger thrill of being “first lady Jill Biden.” In other words, surrender your pride in your own trivial accomplishments for the title conferred by your husband’s. No wonder this “grumpy” column sent me and so many women “over the edge.”