To all the PhD's I love
In bed, or rather about to get out of it. Writing in a half used journal that has random meeting notes from over the years. My pencil still does not have a sharp enough point.
It is mid December when I write this. I am still thinking about the gift of aging as my birthday was the previous week.
I am also having all the feels related to this. A commentary in WSJ about whether the First Lady Dr. Jill Biden should be recognized as such.
There was a good three year period back in the mid-2000s when I wondered if my MPH was enough to validate my knowledge and expertise. I understood that there are certain titles in this world in which I work that serve as proof of worthiness and intellect in a capitalistic system. And so, like so many of us have done, I made a calculated decision that, given where I was in my career and what the work I was doing, it would not advance significantly my efforts, so I let go of the idea of getting a PhD.
Fast forward some years and one of the things I love most about this life I have chosen is that more often than not I am surrounded by people who know such a variety of different things and are smarter than me. Some of those folks, many of whom are women, have PhDs. If you fit this category, you know I go back and forth between using your honorific. I understand that it is part of who you are and so it seems appropriate to do so and in a professional setting, I tend to default to using Dr. because 1. You are and 2. it helps to counterbalance the tendency of men to lead with their title.
On more than one occasion, my female colleagues have said, “You don’t have to call me Dr.” I usually respond, “I know. I choose to say Dr. because you earned it.” I want to recognize it and by doing so it also dispels some of the belief that men are the only experts.
As I sit here chewing on all this, I think there is something about the experience of being a Black female that lets us see and play by the rules while simultaneously challenging and changing the rules that are unique. Perhaps it is partly due to being both visible and yet invisible. Seeing things is simply another tool we use to survive (and ideally thrive) in a world that continues to evolve driven by our hearts, heads and hands while also deeming us to be of little value.
Rather than focus on that honest and hurtfelt note I thought I would say thank you to all the women Drs. who have and continue to influence what and how I think and feel as I move through this world.
This is not an exhaustive list but those listed have affected my life in a profound way. Several are dear friends and I feel blessed for that to be the case.
Thank you for letting me get close to some of your brilliance.
About The Author:
Jara Dean-Coffey (jdc) is Founder and Director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and the Founder of Luminare Group. For the past twenty-five years, she has partnered with clients and colleagues to elevate their collective understanding of the relationship between values, context, strategy and evaluation and shifting our practices so that they are more fully in service of equity. For more about musings + machinations click here.
