Who Deserves a Seat in Dental School?

A reflection on gender, family, and careers

This is a photo of all of my classmates at dental college, taken in 1999, the year we graduated. The photo belongs to the author. As you can see, there are almost as many girls as there are boys.

When I was in college, a classmate said women should ‘step aside’ for men. Here’s why I stayed — and what it taught me about working women and family expectations.

Why should girls make room for boys in dental school?

In 1999, my classmates and I gathered for a photo to celebrate our graduation from dental college. One student in our group — let’s call him Mihir — held strong opinions about gender roles and education. According to him, girls occupied seats that rightfully belonged to boys who would one day support families.

Mihir (wearing a navy blue shirt above) once told a group of us that girls should make way for boys in dental college because, in his view, a college seat was “wasted” on a girl.

Mihir wasn’t against women studying or getting an education per se. He objected to women getting some of the limited, government-sponsored (free) seats available in dental and medical colleges, leading to professions that make money. In that picture you see above, 12 of us girls, and 18 of the boys, were “free” seat students. The girls were wasting resources and we should be ashamed. We would take a free seat paid for by taxpayers, but we would frivolously use it only for…