Where are the men?

First review session of the year was today. I love it. Small(er) group teaching, lots and lots of interaction. You can see the whites of the eyes. You can see when they don’t get it–and best of all, you can see when the light bulbs come on. That is so gratifying.

4ib4K5xigThe major bummer: I forgot to take a photo of the group. In previous years, it’s been tragic. Today, there must have been almost 40 students. Best attendance ever. Camera Andrew? Wake up. Too busy with water, recovery from class, projection systems (that damn multitasking problem)….but I did observe the sex bias. It is always there. This time there were two blokes among the ?40. I am not sure what the class sex ratio is. But it is not 1 in 20 (maybe it is 9 in 20?). As a father of sons – and frankly, the most charming and smart young men you will ever meet – it is seriously sad that blokes don’t revise. I hate to generalize, but here goes: women work to achieve. Men assume they will.

They don’t. Somil, one of the class TAs this year, was in the top three in class last year. The next guy was in rank order #21. That’s an anecdote. but every year, I have had no options for male TAs. If I am lucky, one bloke will be up there. Most years, none are. That’s six anecdotes. Starting to sound like data.

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