Stav Atir on How Gender Influences the Way We Refer to Kamala Harris and Women Professionals

Stav Atir

In the days since Vice President Kamala Harris has become the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, part of the discussion around her candidacy has focused on what she will be called. Her campaign has embraced the informality of going by her first name, Kamala, and even switched their X (formerly Twitter) account to “Kamala HQ.” IDS Affiliate Stav Atir recently discussed this issue with Stacey Leasca of Glamour. Atir’s research finds that women are far more likely to be called by their first name than men and that this can carry professional costs.

“I kept seeing men referred to by just their last name, and equally famous, well-known, eminent women, not identified the same way,” Atir said. Atir’s research with her collaborator, Dr. Melissa Ferguson, parsed transcripts from news talk shows and found that men were more than twice as likely to referred to by their last name or surname than women. In Atir and Ferguson’s study, survey respondents judged fictional researchers who were referred to by their last name as better known than those referred to be their full name. These judgments about fame and eminence have consequences. For researchers and other professionals, they can be closely tied to perceptions of status and likelihood of advancement.

However, in the case of Harris, Dr. Atir says that going by Kamala may carry advantages. “Kamala is more informal. It’s more familiar. It’s potentially meaningful that she gets a first name…” Atir noted for the Glamour piece. A new IDS-funded research effort being led by Atir and co-author Hannah Birnbaum of Washington University in St. Louis may shed more light on this. The project, called “The Privilege of Informality: Gender Differences in Preference for Formal Professional Titles,” suggests that there may be a tradeoff between respect given to women who use formal titles and perceptions of likeability that go along with less formal names in professional settings.

Atir and Birnbaum say that this new research will help us understand women’s strategies for navigating professional environments where they experience less respect than male counterparts. It’s relevant in the case of Kamala Harris’s campaign, as judgments of leadership, likeability, eminence, and competence may in part be influenced by how she refers to herself.