This article discusses how women studying in Asia are increasingly specializing their business graduate programs and are entering and finishing their programs much earlier compared to their male counterparts. Studies conducted by the Global Alliance in Management Education show that women represent 72 percent of the master’s international management course.
The article speculates that women are better suited for this specialized masters program because they are often more interested in an international career, have no real difficulty with language, tend to be more sociable with non-Chinese students and work better on teams. They are unafraid of assimilation and therefore often do better in the program.
I think it is interesting to note, even if on a more global scale, the types of majors and concentrations that are more geared to women or more inhabited by women. I would love to know why that is and how that became. My main concern about majors geared toward women is the preferential treatment, and therefore funding, that some majors receive versus others. For example, Brooklyn College severely underfunds the Women’s and Gender Studies Department compared to other departments. Perhaps not particularly popular, this growing academic area is becoming more and more relevant to our lives, especially as citizens of New York City. I cannot tell you specifically how a department becomes great, but better funding I am sure would help.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/women-in-asia-better-at-planning-a-business-education
This hearkens back to the class we had (I think it was actually last week’s) that touched upon gearing computer science courses more towards women. I don’t think the majors and programs mentioned in this article were specifically made for women, but rather happened to have a significant amount of women members because of possible career qualities that women tend to excel in. This is particularly interesting to hear about because I tend to read articles and opinion pieces about male-dominated fields; I’m glad that in this case, the international management field is female-dominated because of more internal attractions to it rather than systematic faults.
I wonder where the article’s author sources their claims about female nature, because I don’t see any.
I’ve always been curious to see a breakdown of majors by gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, etc., in Brooklyn College. We often hear about the lack of women in science related fields, but I wonder if there’s a homogeneity of other classifiable groups in different fields. If there is, then the question to ask is, why? This becomes more sociological/psychological, but I think it could be important to understand students’ inclinations (and hesitations) towards certain fields when they enter college so that we can best encourage and advise them, or even make a certain field more welcoming–like the computer science program we discussed that Alexandra referred to. If a female student is reluctant to major in chemistry, but she shows promise and/or interest in the subject, we shouldn’t just dismiss it as “she’s just not interested in Chem; let’s recommend English.” Looking at things like gender and race when advising a student with major selection can surely cross the line into stereotyping when in the wrong hands; however, when such information is utilized correctly, I think it has the potential to help the way we advise students.
I’m not sure if that was at all coherent, but I think the conversation about who-majors-in-what is quite interesting and potentially very informative.
I think the college information website has the breakdown of majors by gender. I will check when I have a minute. Any special major you are interested in? You have to keep in mind that the UG student body is something like 60% female and 40% male in looking at the statistics.