It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.
There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.
Remember the professor asking whether to correct students who address her as Mrs. (#3 at the link)? Here’s the update.
I am the college professor who wrote to you about my students addressing me using the honorific Mrs., rather than Ms. or Dr.
The comments and suggestions I received in response to my letter gave me the confidence to view the beginning of the fall semester as an important teachable moment. When I introduced myself at the start of class, I clearly explained not only how students should address me (“Dr. Green”) but also how they should NOT address me. In addition, I included with the course materials a blog post explaining how to address women in the workplace.
On the downside, it took less than a week for me to receive my first “Dear Mrs. Green” email. On the upside, now at 11 weeks into the semester, the use of “Dr. Green” has increased significantly, Ms. is used rarely, and Mrs. has almost disappeared.
In addition to my decision to be more clear and direct about my preferences (and provide the blog post), there are two other factors that may have caused the switch from Mrs. Green to Dr. Green. First, my very large class happens to have a great group of students this semester (every class is different and I lucked out this time). Second, I became department chair during the summer, so I may now seem more important.
It will be a few months until I know if my use of the teachable moment will be mentioned in my teaching evaluations. But in any case, I have experienced less annoyance from reading or hearing “Mrs.” this semester and I will definitely continue my crusade with future classes. Also, I believe that I have probably helped some of my students avoid annoying their post-college colleagues, so I feel good about that.
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