The Yellow Pearls of China: Women with a PhD

In China it is said that there are three types of people: men, women and women with a PhD. Achieving a PhD is exceptional, the years of slow toil, the low income (with or without a scholarship), as well as the social and intellectual isolation that many candidates experience, is only for an impassioned few. For aspiring female Chinese scholars the decision to undertake a PhD is even more fraught as many face a choice between their academic pursuits and the prospects of having a family. As one undergraduate student at a leading university in Beijing says, "Parents don't see any meaning in a woman getting a PhD. Men should."