Comments on: Men, Women, College, and their future life path

By: Betsy Markum

Betsy Markum — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:34:05 +0000

I can’t believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $37538. Isn’t that crazy!

By: Patrix

Patrix — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:42:02 +0000

Abi, Thanks for those links. Made great reading.

Sunil, it is a matter of free will but at the same time, we have to understand the social pressures that women face.

By: Sunil

Sunil — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:16:12 +0000

This is an interesting post…….

….one of my former collegues (a post-doc in my lab), now is a “PhD mom”. She’s an excellent scientist, who contributed substantially to research while she was here (very much “first tier”, with a PhD from Duke in Biochemistry, and a post-doc in my lab…considered one of the leading labs in its area in the world), but is no longer in active science, and is totally involved in bringing up her baby. It was completely her choice, and she’s quite happy about her choice, she wanted to do it……..

So….i wouldn’t over analyze the issue……

By: Abi

Abi — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 08:53:06 +0000

Patrix, Kieran Healy has a set of three posts on this topic, instigated by the same NYTimes story you linked to. 'Nuf said.

By: Patrix

Patrix — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:25:38 +0000

Half Sigma, of course what you are trained to do and what you ultimately do in your life can be totally different but putting yourself through the rigors of education at least makes you more likely to succeed in life, right? Queer, you have echoed most of my thoughts and of course changing trends in the society have to be taken into account as well. Khotta, but if you think economically, they don't differentiate much between genders here unless you climb down the economic ladder. Thanks for the link. Ash, you have brought out interesting points; something that will further this discussion. A survey of second and third tier colleges would definitely be useful to cross-check the validity of these claims. I suspect that it would be less significant if not totally reverse.

By: Ash

Ash — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:40:06 +0000

Perhaps more women are pursuing higher education than men, because it gives them an added advantage “in an intensely competitive world heavily prejudiced against hiring women”. Just a thought.

Also the reports you link to talk about graduates from elite colleges. Maybe some of these women can ‘afford’ to not work. Education fulfils their thirst for knowledge. Beyond that, if there is no need nor inclination to work, why would they ?

I wonder what similar studies from the lower tiers of colleges would turn up. I would expect that there might not be many women graduating with PhDs, but those with a B.S, or M.S would be working - purely for financial reasons.

After all, if money wasn’t an issue, how many of us would be working in the fields in which we were trained ??

By: khotta

khotta — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:35:08 +0000

well if its were india you think so. but i think in this country…even though it seems a lot of women are getting education, they might actually going towards careers that make you of their feminine traits…coz that’s really what sells here. i mean look at people here scoff at “intelligent women” or a “woman for president”.

BTw….linked you.

By: Queer

Queer — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:22:34 +0000

First of all, why do we think that a good career is the sequel to a good education? To a certain extent education is a necessity, beyond which, it becomes more of a choice. We study with different goals in our minds, and to me our choice of having a career, or rather, not having one, should not be limited by what kind of degrees we have. Traditionally, women were just home-makers, but now, they have a choice. They are exploring these choices and choosing whatever is it that they want to choose – be it being at home or having a career. To each of us, our life is our own definition, defined by having a family or a career or being a hippy. And ultimately that’s what leads to our choices. Plus, with men choosing to be at home, the traditional roles are reversing.

Although a PhD might have its advantages, being mom, is a lot more than just having alphabets added behind your name. I don’t think that a PhD or a BS, would make one a good or bad mother.

As far as education goes, it never goes wasted. Hell, even if we don’t apply it, we can always pass it on, or learn more just because.

By: Half Sigma

Half Sigma — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:33:37 +0000

The reason I don’t worry about education being wasted is because most education is a waste anyway. I do computer programming for a living despite having three degrees (one undergraduate and two graduate) that have absolutely nothing to do with computer programming.