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turbinetree

(24,631 posts)
Sun Dec 8, 2019, 01:55 AM Dec 2019

Whats in A Title? When It Comes to Doctor', More Than You Might Think

It's not quite "little lady," but it's close. Doctors who are women are more often introduced by their first names than those who are men. Shocking, we know.
By The Conversation

Patricia Friedrich, Arizona State University

If you work in medicine, does it matter if you are called by your title? Is it all right if patients, colleagues, and others call you by your first name?

The answer of course depends on whom you ask. However, for many doctors who are women, that is not necessarily the central concern. It is more worrying that they and their male counterparts receive different forms of address. Women are more often referred to by first name, even when the situation of communication is formal. The same does not happen to doctors who are men.

Women in medicine may wonder whether or not those variations in how they are addressed might have far-reaching consequences for their careers. Do they reflect a systematic difference in attitude?

As a linguist, writer, and professor who teaches mostly sociolinguistics content, I have always been fascinated by the ways in which we use language. Linguistic categories and beliefs can affect different areas of our lives.

When my colleagues and I became curious about the use of titles, we conducted a study. It is part of a number of efforts by researchers interested in the social aspects of gender in medical fields. Our study shows that women are indeed less often called “doctor” than their male equivalent, and by a large margin.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/whats-title-when-it-comes-doctor-more-you

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Whats in A Title? When It Comes to Doctor', More Than You Might Think (Original Post) turbinetree Dec 2019 OP
An old (she is now 91) friend of mine turned that into a very successful trademark DFW Dec 2019 #1
Dr. Ruth Westheimer ? MichMan Dec 2019 #2
The one and only! DFW Dec 2019 #3

DFW

(54,050 posts)
1. An old (she is now 91) friend of mine turned that into a very successful trademark
Sun Dec 8, 2019, 04:44 AM
Dec 2019

The rest of her family perished in the Holocaust, and she had quite a colorful career since then. Ashamed of her strong German accent, she wanted to take speech instruction to get rid of it, but was told instead to leave it as it was and turn it into a trademark of sorts. She is already a "little lady," being all of 4'7" so she isn't at all offended by that, not that it is really an issue any more. She was a sniper in the Israeli war of independence before turning to medicine and Canada (she has lived in New York City for decades now).

She and I use first names only, no titles, but most people address her by "Doctor" plus her first name. For a while, I know she did a lot of TV shows in the USA and a few back in her native Germany, but these days, she makes most of her money as an author (at 91, she is still going strong). For all she has gone through, she remains the jovial Jewish grandmother. She invited my wife and me down to the Frankfurt Book Fair a few years ago, when she was publishing the German-language version of some new book of hers. When we were about to leave for our train back to Düsseldorf, she insisted on finding a stand offering free sandwiches, and packed a few up in a napkin for us so we wouldn't starve on the trip back (all of an hour and a half!).

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