A P.H.T. (or Ph.T.) is a "degree" awarded specifically to women. It stands for "Putting Husband Through" and was awarded for the distinction of having a husband who was a student and graduated with a college or graduate degree while they were married; presumably the woman helped support her husband during his education. Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique mentions the P.H.T. being initiated in the 1950s in the United States at a time when women were increasingly attending college as a way to meet future husbands rather than to further their own education. Some P.H.T.s have also been self-awarded.
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