Is there a doctor in the house? The gendered use of honorifics

'Oh! How dare she call herself Dr! She isn't a full time academic!' or 'She isn't a medical doctor! How dare she use the title!'

Welcome to the 21^st century world of sessional academia, where the notion of a tenured workforce is as old and dog earned as a coffee stained paperback of David Lodge's 1980s campus novels. I earned the right to be called Dr, and so, therefore, I will use it. It's great for the apologetic gasp on the end of the line when someone from an overseas call centre asks robotically if you are 'Miss or Mrs?'

'Neither,' I delight in replying. 'I am Dr.' Indeed, getting a PhD is worth it simply to have, as a woman, an honorific to use that a/ commands respect and b/ squashes forever the question of relationship status.

In fact, having Dr in front of one's name is the ultimate finger to society intent on categorizing women.