It’s the year 2020. The world at large is battling a pandemic. And still, a man believes he has the right to tell a woman, that too the incoming First Lady of the USA, to drop the title of ‘Dr.’ from her name because it’s a doctorate. Unfortunately, this isn’t the premise of a strange post-apocalyptic fiction but actually what happened.

An op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal asked Dr. Jill Biden, the incoming First Lady, to drop the title from her name because she isn’t a medical doctor. 

WSJ

And to ensure that the op-ed completely reeked of misogyny, the writer began the article by addressing her as ‘kiddo’, and within the first paragraph itself, dismissed her education, ridiculed her hard work by mocking her dissertation subject, and reduced the entire medical science to the ability to deliver babies. 

WSJ

The writer’s intention may have been to be flippant or sarcastic, but the tone was purely sexist. It’s not just unfortunate but downright despicable that even in 2020 a woman who has worked hard to earn her degree and done a commendable job at her profession is attacked for her qualifications, simply because she is a woman.

People

And there is no question about this op-ed being motivated by misogyny because Dr. Jill Biden is certainly not the first person with a doctorate to use Dr. as a title. 

She does appear to the first person though who was questioned and ‘called out’ over it. Of course, she had the perfect response to the article: 

While the chauvinistic op-ed had no place in 2020, it was heartening to see former First Ladies Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton come out in support of Dr. Jill Biden. Because it’s 2020, when women lift other women up, especially when certain men struggle to accept qualified women in powerful positions. 

Rightfully, many other people also took to social media to criticize the article for its sexist tone and outrightly rude ‘suggestion’: 

Even physicians came out in support of Dr. Jill Biden, reiterating not just the importance of a doctorate degree but also the need to not pull down one person’s achievements: 

As of now, the WSJ editor has defended the op-ed, blaming the ‘cancel culture’ instead. Clearly, somewhere in the WSJ editorial room, there’s a boys club failing to understand why a bunch of women are upset about their academic qualifications being dismissed so easily. Sadly, there’s no doctor who can cure toxic masculinity.