Some debates fade away. Others come back every year like holiday decorations nobody asked for. The argument over whether to call Jill Biden “Dr. Biden” falls squarely in the second group.
Alex Bruno spent a week listening to Americans argue about it, and came away with a headache and a new respect for people who just say “ma’am.”
Jill Biden has a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware. She earned it in 2007, wrote a dissertation, and has used the title ever since. That’s the fact part.
Everything after that is opinion, and boy, do people have them. Critics say “Dr.” should mean someone who went to medical school. They argue it gets confusing when a politician’s spouse uses a title most people associate with stethoscopes.
A retired trucker in Ohio told Bruno he doesn’t have anything against her. “Nice lady,” he said. “But when I hear doctor, I think somebody who can fix my knee. Not somebody who can grade my essay about my knee.”
Supporters say that’s just how academic titles work. Professors, scientists and historians all use “Dr.” if they earned a doctorate. Nobody blinks when a physicist does it, so why the fuss here?
A chemistry teacher in Arizona summed it up. “I spent six years in a lab breathing fumes for my Ph.D.,” she said. “I’m going to use the title. I earned the headaches.”
Part of the reason the debate keeps coming back is that it’s easy. You don’t need to read a bill or understand foreign policy to have an opinion about what to call someone. Everyone has been called something they didn’t like, and everyone has an opinion about manners.
It’s also great for cable news, which can fill a full hour with people shouting about two letters and a period.
Bruno asked fifty people at a shopping mall what they’d call Jill Biden if they met her. Twenty said Dr. Biden. Fifteen said Mrs. Biden. Ten said Jill. Three said they’d just wave. Two asked if she was the one from the cooking show.
The mall’s security guard, who had been listening, added his own thoughts. “I’d call her whatever she wants,” he said. “I just want everyone to stop yelling near the pretzel stand.”
Jill Biden has mostly ignored the fight. People around her say she finds it odd that her title gets more press than her teaching career, but she’s not losing sleep over it.
The debate has even reached the workplace. HR consultants told Bruno they now get questions about how to address employees with doctorates in emails, on name tags and during meetings. One company in Chicago apparently held a forty-minute meeting about it.
The outcome was that everyone would use first names, which is what they were doing before the meeting. “It was the most expensive decision to change nothing I’ve ever seen,” one employee said. Another person at the meeting, who holds a Ph.D. in engineering, said she just wanted everyone to stop calling her “buddy” on Slack.
The debate will probably flare up again the next time someone writes a cranky column about it. Until then, Americans can continue doing what they do best, which is arguing about something that changes absolutely nothing.
Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
