Female Professor: How to Call them? (Updated 2024)

Being a student means having interactions with a lot of professors. There are both male and female professors who will teach you in the institution you are in. One confusion that most of the students have is how to call a male or a female professor. Many believe that professor is only used for males which is not true. Thus here we will help you to know more about how can you call a female professor.

Quick Takeaways

• Professor is a word used for both males and females.
• Therefore you should use professor for calling your female professor by using the word professor. 
• If they have done a Ph.D, then you can use the title Doctor before their name. 
• There are many professors who will give you the titles that you can use to call them.

However, you must read till the end so that you get a better understanding of how can you call your female professor.

What should you call your female professor?

Professor is a word which is used for both males and females. Thus you must only call your female professor with the professor or the title they discussed with you in the starting. You must make sure that you are not making any biases between a male and a female professor. If they have given you the title make sure that you are using it. One thing you must remember is that just like any professor can be called a professor, irrespective of their gender, the rules for dressing up are also the same.

How to address a female professor if they have a doctoral degree?

If your professor has a doctoral degree, then you will need to call them a doctor. You can call them a Doctor followed by their last name. Getting a doctoral degree is very hard and generally have higher authority than the professors. Therefore even when you are addressing them you must use the title Dr. before their name. However, if you do not know the qualifications of the professor, you must call them by using the word professor. There are high chance that they correct you. In such a scenario you must remember what they said to you and you must try to follow it.

How can you address your female professor?

The first thing you need to remember is how to address a female professor will depend upon how they are asking. You may address them by using Ms., Mrs., etc. only if they want you to call them by their first name. However, if this is the case then you must try to find out what they use before their name. You can find it out during the introduction time. Further, if it is not yet clear, then you must call them by saying professor followed by the last name. It is the easiest and safest way to address your female professor.

Should you call your female professor Ms. or Mrs.?

In the initial times, it was considered appropriate to call the female professor Ms or Mrs. But currently, there are many debates on it. Although at present there are many professors who allow to be called Miss or Mrs., many professors do not find it appropriate. The simple reason for this is that many believe that such a difference is not done with male professors. They considered married and unmarried women equally. Another reason that most female professors consider this is that these titles oversee the position of your professor’s academic achievement.

They say that being a female professor does not affect the pay so why should be there a difference between them? Therefore you must avoid using these titles as using them can leave a bad impression on them. To get saved you must only use a professor to call them.

How to know what should you call the female professor?

Every university and college follows a proper code for the students to call their professors. If your university also gives you specific titles for your female professors, then you must use them. However if they do not give you, the best thing you can do is to call them a professor. One thing you can do is you can talk to the students who have already taken a class from that professor. They will you give the right advice on how to call that professor. 

How can you address the female teaching assistants?

If you have to address a female who is not teaching you but is the assistant of the professor then you can call them by using Ms. Make sure to use Mrs., only if you are asked to. The reason why you can not call them a professor or a doctor is simply because they do not have a proper teaching duty and have not completed their PhD yet.

Usually, teaching assistants are the ones who have just completed their graduation. Most of the students call them by their first name as they are only 2-3 years older than them. Thus you can say that it is very common to call them by their first name. One thing that you must remember is that you should not do it until you find someone doing it.

How can you address the female lab instructor?

Again the first thing is to find out their qualifications. If they are just graduate students or have not worked for a long time, then you must use Ms. On the other hand, if they have received their doctoral degree then you must address them with a Doctor’s title. Again if they want you to address them with a different title then they will let you know that. Another thing that you can do is to talk to the students who have studied from the professors earlier.

Conclusion

Professor is a word that is used for both females and males. Therefore when you call a female professor you will call them the title professor. Further, if they have completed their doctoral degree then you will call them a doctor. In addition to that, there are professors who will tell you the titles that you can use to call them. Also, you must make sure that you are not calling them by Ms. or Mrs as they may think that it is something which is not based on their academic achievements. Therefore you should only call them by using the word professor until they give you a different title.