You'd think if you're youngish, female, and have a Ph.D., you're at the top of your game: school is behind you because (thank god) you finally have the terminal degree, your shiny new life is ahead of you, yada yada.

But if you're young, female, have a Ph.D., and you aren't a professor, things get a bit more complicated.

In short, it's an awkward space to occupy. See, at the university, there are two basic categories of employment: faculty and staff. Anecdotes abound of some of the former being less than respectful of the latter. There's a sense, perhaps, that staff don't really understand what it is that faculty do, even though thousands of us support them in their work on my campus. There's also a perception, alas, that staff are not intellectuals, that, whether we have fancy degrees or not, we've settled for less noble occupations because we lack the ambition or ability to succeed in academia, whether that means the lab or the classroom.

When I took a staff job, I never thought this kind of discrimination would happen to me. I mean, I'm articulate. I'm fairly bright. I don't hide my intellectual light under a bushel. Yet I've lost track of the number of times I've had to casually work my Ph.D. into a conversation in order to be taken seriously by a faculty member, particularly male faculty.

The latest episode came last week, when I volunteered to follow up a faculty member who had been downright abusive on the phone while talking to another member of my unit's staff. The professor was upset with some detail of a program we run--a detail that involves students and is out of our hands--and it was my job to listen to his concerns and find a way to address them. We did finally end on a cordial note, but not before he complained that staff without teaching experience shouldn't be running a program for faculty.

I then initiated what I think of as the Ph.D. waltz, a three-step dance where (1) I correct his misconceptions about me (I do teach), (2) I mention that I have a Ph.D., and (3) I wait to hear the sound of relief in the professor's voice.

I performed this waltz quite a bit when I was helping faculty navigate the labyrinth of new technologies in teaching--because they assumed anybody training them to use technology wouldn't have as much schooling as they have. I also have to mention it regularly when I'm called to observe and comment upon a faculty member's teaching.

Short of scanning my diploma and printing it on t-shirts, I'm not sure how to address this phenomenon before faculty start too far down the problematic road. I see it as a "holier than thou" move, and I know I'm not alone in experiencing it. And I must admit, it makes me uneasy to say, "Hey, I'm every bit as holy as you are." I know there are tens of thousands of staff members who don't have a membership card to this faculty club, and as a result they're discounted by many faculty.

Laura (AKA Geeky Mom) has struggled with this problem for at least a year--and she has her Ph.D. She's an expert in using new media technologies in undergraduate learning, but no matter how many times she asserted her usefulness to faculty in this capacity, enough of them still treated her like a digital Kinko's (digitize these photos, burn this DVD, help me with my e-mail) that she recently quit her job.

It's not just humanities Ph.D.s who have this problem. Ms. Ph.D. has been going through power struggles as a postdoc:

So we've had these kinds of scenarios where I say, "Well I think this is going to piss some people off, we shouldn't write it that way"

and advisor says "No, trust me, I have a lot of experience with publishing, this is how we'll write it."

And then the reviews come back, and guess who was right?

MsPhD was right. But does advisor say "Look, you were right, I was wrong, I'm sorry I got in your way"?

No, advisor gets MORE pissed off at me. Clearly, this is my fault for not making a stronger case for why I was right all along.

I mean, talk about a mindfuck. When I argue? I'm being a bitch, and the paper doesn't get submitted for months or years because advisor is sitting on it as my punishment.

Hello, being a female postdoc. Isn't this great?

But when I don't argue, I get punished by the reviews and advisor is disappointed that I apparently lack the confidence in my scientific knowledge to stand up for what I think is the right thing to do.

Did I mention mindfuck? Fucking mindfuck.

So I lose either way.

TitleTroubles also has trouble getting some respect as a postdoc:

Boss announced yesterday that he would be working from home today and wouldn't be in at all. Effect? I'm the only one here. You know, the one who's being let go due to lack of funding. (Ignoring the fact that I have no desire to stay--just go with it for now.) Guess who has data? That's right. Also, when stuff had to be done today in his absence, wanna make a guess as to who he e-mailed for help? Yeah.

What about you? In what ways are do people underestimate or disrespect you, despite your qualifications in your field? And what do you do about it?

Leslie Madsen-Brooks develops learning experiences for K-12, university, and museum clients. She blogs at The Clutter Museum, Museum Blogging, and The Multicultural Toybox.