I had a chance to talk to somebody who used to work as an assistant professor in a university. We got to talking about her and I brought up the fact that how is it that an economics major does not know the difference between a subsidy and a tax incentive? He said when he was part of the university system, there was pressure to graduate a certain number of females and/or minorities in certain majors. She may have been one of the recipients of that in economics
When I was last at university more than a quarter century ago, I was almost as old as many of the professors who taught classes in my major.
One time after class one of my professors (all but one of my profs was a political liberal despite it being a mostly non-political subject...unless ground water and soils are somehow political) who I was friendly with started talking about the university's efforts to hire more female professors in his department which at the time had no permanent female profs. and only one visiting female prof (who by the way was excellent) and who taught a specific subject where no other prof in the department was proficient.
He exhibited a certain amount of frustration and anger relating to how his department was forced to interview only female professors for an open spot in the department. None of the female profs interviewed were competent, but the university admin was demanding they hire at least one female for the new position.
Fortunately, I graduated before all that came to pass.
