Groan…
Via Daily Mail:
When introduced to pupils as ‘Professor’, she may not have expected them to appreciate her academic achievements – but she did expect them to address her accordingly.
Instead, Jennifer Coates says she was ‘demeaned’ by the youngsters simply calling her ‘Miss’.
Professor Coates described it as ‘a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job they are, are given high status’.
Now the emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at Roehampton University has called for the traditional titles ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ to be banished from schools to stop sexist views taking root among pupils.
Her call was backed by several other academics – including one who said teachers should instead be called by their first names.
Professor Coates told how she had been introduced to pupils at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich, where she was volunteering, as ‘Professor Coates’, but they soon reverted to calling her just ‘Miss’.
‘The men on the staff are all in their twenties and they were all called Sir,’ she said. ‘Sire is what you called the king. And Sir is a knight. There weren’t women knights but Miss is ridiculous: it doesn’t match Sir at all.
‘It’s just one of the names you can call an unmarried woman.’
She said that for both men and women using their ‘title plus last name would be better’.
Professor Coates, who taught a course for undergraduates on sexist language, warned that terms such as ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ risked reinforcing the message that ‘women are lesser beings to men’.
Their use dates back to the 16th century, when schoolmasters were often of a lower social status than the children they taught.