It never ceases to amaze me whenever people think women should be represented 50-50 in every profession, degree program, etc. Didn't it occur to anyone that women might just not be interested in getting a degree that would qualify them for only full-time employment? Lots of women want to work only part-time while they raise their kids. When you can teach part-time as an adjunct with a Master's degree, why bother wasting all those years on a doctorate?
I have to agree, though, about the lack of rigorous math prep in the U.S. I get complaints all the time about how many foreign grad students we have teaching classes. Students don't realize that our department has to recruit outside the U.S. because we just don't have enough "local talent" to fill all the teaching slots for all the remedial math classes (that the state refuses to fund, on the grounds that these classes are already being taught at the high schools).
It never ceases to amaze me whenever people think women should be represented 50-50 in every profession, degree program, etc. Didn't it occur to anyone that women might just not be interested in getting a degree that would qualify them for only full-time employment? Lots of women want to work only part-time while they raise their kids. When you can teach part-time as an adjunct with a Master's degree, why bother wasting all those years on a doctorate?
I have to agree, though, about the lack of rigorous math prep in the U.S. I get complaints all the time about how many foreign grad students we have teaching classes. Students don't realize that our department has to recruit outside the U.S. because we just don't have enough "local talent" to fill all the teaching slots for all the remedial math classes (that the state refuses to fund, on the grounds that these classes are already being taught at the high schools).
Posted by Wacky Hermit In Training at August 12, 2003 11:01 AM