In recent years I've heard some preachers (one example is NAK) say things like, "stop putting your daughters into medical school because no one will want to marry them."

Even if going to medical school hurts a woman's prospects, saying that women shouldn't go into medical...

...school is not the right solution because at the end of the day, we need women doctors. (64% of doctors in the US are men.)

The same people saying these things want a female Muslim doctor for their wife or daughter, and in some cases they have to search far & wide to find one!

The reason why going to medical school hurts a woman's marital chances is because in general, men want to marry someone at the same or less level as them when it comes to education/career. And women want to marry someone at the same or higher level.

This is natural & can't really be changed.

The issue is that women (in general) are doing better than men in terms of educational and career attainment. The "boys adrift" phenomenon is real and happening in our communities too.

There are multiple ways of trying to address this.

One is by trying to suppress women's achievement by discouraging them from going to medical school or dentistry or pharmacy or whatever else.

This is the easy way out, which is why some preachers (who like to offer easy sound-bite solutions to every problem) are attracted to it.

Another way is trying to figure out why men are underachieving, and how to lift them up so they can be at the same level as women or higher.

This isn't easy and takes a lot of work. Which is why you won't see those preachers talk about it much.