Dr. Jill Biden and Us

How could we ignore the current kerfuffle about Dr. Jill Biden’s use of “Dr.,” which was prompted by a Wall Street Journal Op-ed by Joseph Epstein last weekend? 

For 45 years, WOC has worked for priestly ministry by women to be recognized, validated, honored. What Mr. Epstein has done to Dr. Biden is done to us, all the time.

Allison Miller, in the Chronicle of Higher Education makes the connection that I see explicit: “Epstein wants the fairyland of open hierarchy back…the structural inequities of the modern university impose a pathological invisibility on [adjuncts with Ph.D.s]. Hierarchy is real. Collegiality is a requirement. Deference is its intuitive, silent servant.”

Deference? If we work for the church, we defer our ambition; we hide our call; we are silent. Of course, we don’t have to endure a “faux collegiality,” as those with lesser status in the academy do. We have collegiality only within our prescribed, inferior roles. 

Miller goes on to say: “it occurs to me that one reason the response to Epstein’s demand for deference from Jill Biden (‘kiddo’) was so intense is that, as an external observer, he is a safe target. It is not, in fact, safe for women and people of color to respond in kind to those who have soft power over them and their careers in academe.” Unlike contingent faculty, “adjuncts, visiting assistant professors, and postdocs,” many of us are so far outside the church hierarchy that we can –in fact, we must – pursue our Ministry of Irritation. 

Epstein is 83 years old. Is his attitude merely his wish to return to an age before political correctness? He is welcome to the “open hierarchy” of the Catholic Church. There’s a much more prominent man in his 80s who keeps making the same kind of mistake in his informal statements, and occasionally in his published ones. For an example of the latter, see this blog for November 28 and WOC’s news release on the recent book by Pope Francis, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. Think of open hierarchy and deference, not collegiality, as you read Kate McElwee’s words: “Women are the heartbeat of the Church and yet every woman, from the parish worker to the Vatican advisor, is subject to the authority of an ordained man.” For examples of the informal, there is this video made by WOC. Though, maybe it’s too cruel to remember those gaffes.

Of course, there’s an editorial page editor at the Wall Street Journal, Paul A. Gigot, who is only 65 and a Roman Catholic, by the way, so age is not the only factor. That WOC news release goes on to say: “Women’s exclusion from ordained ministries not only undermines their capacity to make decisions as leaders, but reinforces cultural and social discrimination, and perpetuates structures that subordinate women and can lead to gender-based violence.” We have long argued that accepting women’s equality would resonate around the world in untold ways. One of them might be Mr. Gigot’s seeing the outrage about Mr. Epstein’s comments as “cancel culture” or a political ploy, as described by Katie Shepherd in the Washington Post.

I feel comfortable appropriating Dr. Biden’s experience because it is my own, in a much less public forum, thankfully. I have two A.M.’s, as it happens, and one Ph.D., from two Ivy League institutions, only one of which did not use “Dr.” for professors. Mrs. Barbara Lewalski was feared by the grad students in English at Brown, where all my instructors were called “Mr.” I ponder, sometimes, why I got so annoyed when undergrads at Temple called me “Mrs. Bannan,” which I never was. I think of a conversation I had with my woman department chair and a male colleague who encouraged his students to use his first name. “Never!” We felt we needed the authority that the degrees we earned conveyed to those transitioning from high school, especially. Maybe we were as stuck in time as Mr. Epstein; maybe younger Ph.D.’s don’t feel the same need. And in the comments those of you who have M.Div.’s tell me how you feel about “Rev.” Do you not earn that if you’re not ordained? Do you use it if you are? 

The reason I decided to write about Dr. Biden is about more than status and respect, however.  Vimal Patel in the Chronicle writes about her dissertation, in which she argues “for retention strategies that have since become increasingly popular at colleges that serve vulnerable students.” At Temple, I directed the program in the College of Liberal Arts for returning adult students, and a study of that program also showed that they valued the most “deep advising relationships,” “faculty mentoring programs [me],” and “more deliberate thought to students’ pathways,” three of Dr. Biden’s keys to “student success.” Fortunately, I rarely had to refer them to the fourth, “mental health services,” though I did when necessary. We were that close. 

Would you believe that Eleanor Harty, WOC’s other weekly blogger, has a similar career story? She taught English and her advanced degrees are real, too. When she was Director of Advising and Assessment at Montgomery County [Pennsylvania] Community College, she headed up the Equal Opportunity in Education Program and Women in Transition, for those returning to the workplace. She worked with young people coming out of foster care and other students who needed special care to succeed – just what Dr. Biden argues for. 

Maybe all three of us see education as a calling. My B.A. from the College of St. Elizabeth in New Jersey influences me at least as much as all the advanced degrees. It’s not about status, deference, or collegiality. It’s about those we are there to serve and how well we serve them. 

I could make a feminist argument here in the midst of all the vitriol that’s being unleashed at Dr. Biden because of this unfortunate article. I will just say that misogyny is alive and well in our country as well as in our church. Phyllis Zagano writes a letter to Dr. Biden in NCR in which she quotes her classy response. 

Our strength is in our histories as individuals and in the movements to which we dedicate our lives. Nothing takes that away. We welcome our next First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and honor the way she lives out her various callings. She will need our prayers.