I was pleased to read in the Nov. 28 The Daily Campus that two SMU faculty colleagues and friends, Dr. Elaine Heath and Dr. Mark Chancey, have been awarded Sam Taylor Fellowship by the United Methodist Church.

I was troubled, however, by the discrepancy in the way that these two excellent scholars and teachers were described by the author of the article. Their names were listed in the article as “Elaine Heath and Dr. Mark Chancey.”

Chancey’s professional title was used but Heath’s was not. In addition, the article includes the titles of several of Chancey’s publications and lists another award he has received, but it includes neither Heath’s publication titles nor her other awards.

This discrepancy is troubling but not surprising. It is not uncommon for people to include titles for men and not for women and to give greater recognition to men’s accomplishments than women’s.

These imbalances in the ways we sometimes talk about and treat men and women are often not intentional slights against women. We make these mistakes without even being aware of it. That’s all the more reason to be vigilant and self-aware in our description and treatment of men and women.

Rebekah Miles Associate Professor of Ethics Perkins School of Theology