It's a beautiful late Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor, MI - home of the massive University of Michigan campus and all-around college town. Mike and I are sitting in a coffee shop near campus. And Mike has just asked a question that's started to interest me, since in the past I've done some observations of people working in cafes: where are all the men?
Most of the people sitting in this cafe are women in groups; most of them appear to be doing homework with laptops, textbooks, and papers, or at least "doing homework." And it's been like this all afternoon. It's not like Michigan has a massive gender imbalance that would explain it. I am consciously trying to resist linking this to the American gender imbalance in grades and college admissions. This is probably just a weird anomaly, but it's kind of weird.
which cafe? there are so many of them.
It's a nice day today (unlike so many recent weeks), which will probably reduce the cafe crowds somewhat.
I don't generally see big gender imbalances in the cafes I frequent (Ambrosia, Espresso Royale, Caribou, Sweetwaters Kerrytown), you might just have hit an odd day.