The PhD/Dr. question, by the way, is also a practical consideration. As more and more people move into alt-ac careers, whether by choice/design or because they are forced out by poverty & scarcity, it’s important to highlight how doctoral research is applicable to various fields.

Separately, I also always notice the reverence people have for MDs in these discussions. I’ve never thought of Dr. as an issue of reverence or subservience, just a fact about a person’s level of education in a particular field.

It does frighten me that we valorize physicians and medical school to the point of deference. I don’t personally think that’s healthy if we want to move towards self-advocacy, less of a hierarchy in medicine, less medical trauma, and honesty about healthcare disparities.

Respect for their level of education in that area, sure. But the attitude of deference—I just don’t think that should be encouraged if we really want to address inequality in healthcare.

People are all “I’m not gonna be subservient to some person with a PhD in [insert field here], that term is for medical doctors” and all I can think is, why are you being subservient to anybody? We definitely shouldn’t be subservient to medical doctors either.

Anyway, it’s hard enough for people to demonstrate how their years of conducting research and distilling complex topics into readable prose are useful in other fields (and that they won’t leave the job to teach). Let’s not make it harder by gatekeeping the term “doctor.”