Make it a full-time PhD! It's possible, even with children and chances of completion are much higher.

the world is going insane..

Perhaps this situation is not about your gender but you are merely trying to find an explanation or excuse for your academic performance. After all, even if this is not the case, I wouldn't be so quick to blame the gender.

"This situation is about my gender. "

How can you be so sure about this causality?

Perhaps I should add that I would love to work along side Dr Paul McKenna from Scotland.

Hi, I'm looking to do a BSc in Medieval Business in Bavaria, Ohio or Kent. Please advise

Before you happily accept or seek additional teaching activities, be aware of two factors: first, they will eat up a lot of your time, in the beginning it's mainly preparation, but also mentally exhausting.

Second, often the university will not be able to offer you teaching which is directly related to your own research and you might end up in an unpleasant situation (as Jojo described earlier) where you basically have to learn a subject from scratch in order to be able to teach it.

Although sometimes beneficial for PhD studies, my advice is not to do it, unless it helps you to complete your PhD.

they create their standards and act like research gods, despite the fact that they are underpaid, depressed and detached from the real world. I think some of them really need a slap on their foreheads.

Or it could be that your paper just wasn't up to standards. Believe it or not, rejection letters are alwasy hard to swallow, after months of waiting for a decision and due to their usually very formal, impersonal nature.

I hate to say it as other users are likely to lose respect, but I got five papers rejected and none accepted. Now that I left the academic world (with a PhD) I can nonetheless still feel the pain. The initial reaction is to blame the editors, the department, the world or the universe but quite often papers are just not up to standard. Still, I do believe that some of these reviewers and editors are a bunch of arrogant idiots.

I also agree with the others, forget this discrimination talk very quickly as it is nothing than a lame excuse for academic lack of competence. Instead, focus on your work, get better and show them how good you are.

I know I sound like an unfriendly arse, but I'm fed up with all rubbish discrimiation talk because of eye colour, eating requirements (vegetarians) and so on.

Yes, a luxury cruise in the Caribbean.

No, actually I only invited him to a dinner in a normal restaurant. Not McDonalds, though

The main problem is to agree a final draft with your advisor. My advisor sent me back to the drawing board several times and only months later I finally received the permission to submit the bloody pile of sheets.

It depends.

In Social Sciences, if you have no other distractions (work, partner, etc.) I think you could realistically produce a first draft of discussion chapters, evaluation chapter, conclusions and introduction within three to four months. That's if your methods and lit review are finalised and agreed on by advisor and all data is collected.

Following this period, I would anticipate a further two months of corrections until a full thesis could be submitted.

But it's all very hypothetical as it depends on your mental and physical state and, of course, your supervisor and so on.

If your PhD is in science, I am afraid I don't have any clues.

How you're getting on Hums. Any news?

I came from a "second (old new university) class" UK university and I just wanted to chat with the guy about my PhD research in the same area. It wasn't my supervisor. At that point, I was in my first year of the PhD. He was very helpful and even agreed to have a final look at my thesis before I submitted it. So it's worth trying, regardless of your background.