Friday, June 06, 2003

My Thoughts on the Decline and Fall of Men in Academia

You're right Niki, men still have the big positions, even in Women's colleges male faculty tend to have the edge on Seniority. But the lack of male students scares me. Intelligent, well educated women are absolutely necessary for societies in this world to flourish, but if its at the expense of educating men, I'm not sure what we've accomplished. Now, as much as it ever did, the world needs men to have advanced degrees, to have brains which function beyond calculating their golf game and contemplating how they can make more money. More importantly, women need men who are intelligent enough to appreciate their capabilities as human beings. We don't live in a vaccuum.

I've been hearing about the resurgence of male chauvinism in American Popular Culture. Is it just a coincidence that male college attendence is in decline? I don't think so.

One question: When you said most of the students in Iran were women, I immediately wondered what all the men were doing instead of going to school. Do you know where they are?