The Sexes at The End of The Semester

Well, I know one thing:  The end of the semester is basically the same sort of grind, whether you're male or female.


Actually, there is one difference that I've seen.  It seems that when you're a female faculty member, you're expected to be more sensitive and understanding when a student wants to make up the work he or she hadn't done since Labor Day and you're expected to have time and not to even think about saying "no" when someone has an "emergency" of some sort. Said "emergencies" usually happen because of some change in regulations or someone's lack of planning.


And, as I was telling the prof with whom I rode last week, I hear some of the same "sob" stories that I've always heard at the ends of semesters.  The difference is in that when I was a Professor Nick, I used to hear the stories mainly from female students.  And, as I half-jokingly told the cycling prof, with every tear they shed, I could see their skirts hiking up another inch.  


Now I find that the female students try to wrench me with sheer emotion.  That doesn't surprise me:  It's almost trite to say that women do relate to each other emotionally more than, or at least in different ways from, men.  On the other hand, some of the male students think they can charm me, as they think they can charm any other female, into cutting them some slack.  Not all are like that, but enough that I notice and expect it.  


That prof, and a couple of others, have told me that what I'm experiencing now is "typical."   If those male students are, or are trying to be so unctuous with me, I can only imagine how much of that sort of behavior those other profs--especially the one with hom I rode--experience.