I am studying for a Maths degree. When I tell people this, I’m often asked ‘Ahh, so what do you want to be, a teacher?’…
No. NO I DON’T WANT TO BE A TEACHER. Do people ask me this because I’m female? Do they ask male maths students if they want to go into teaching, or do they ask them if they want to go into finance/engineering/further study etc? A female friend on my course said that she also regularly gets this response.
I’m currently on a placement, working in finance, and even people at work have asked if I want to go into teaching. Does the fact that I’m doing a financial placement not give a clue that no, I do not want to go into teaching?
I generally pull my face and say ‘definitely not’, then tell them what field of work I would actually be interested in. In my head I’m rolling my eyes at them. I know it isn’t deliberate sexism, but it still drives me crazy.