Hard Times for Gender Studies Major

Posted on Comments

Hilarity ensued Monday after @Andria_XX complained that social-media criticism of Miley Cyrus included “bodyshaming/slutshaming” and “heteropatriarchal crap.” Readers will recall that Andria has an “Honors BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies” and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Gender Studies. So . . . how’s that going?

“I have a honors BA and I’m defending my MA thesis
in two weeks. I am also apply for jobs and I can
only find stuff in the service industry. I applied
for a Hotel Front Desk Clerk job today.
My degrees mean NOTHING.
I am at the end of my rope.“

What? Being an advanced student of useless ideology doesn’t result in meaningful employment? That’s just really . . . unfair.

UPDATE: Linked by Tarpon’s Swamp and Rio Norte Line — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

 

341 comments

  2. Do they need JCL at McD’s?

    But seriously, age discrimination is a huge problem in the tech industry. Gotta keep those skills updated or do something based on physics that doesn’t have a “sell by” date.

    Two words. Just two words. “Power Electronics”.

  5. The short dry wallers do the part near the floor that it’s a real pain for the tall ones to bend over to get to. No I am not joking.

  6. Jeez, guys, I didn’t realize it was Kick A Canadian Day. Although ‘fessing up to being overcredentialed and underemployed does kind of put a “Kick Me” sign on her back.

  10. I used to think this was the answer for all students.

    But a buddy of mine is the head of a STEM department at a local university. His department is exploding because so many of the students have realized that liberal arts degrees have no value.

    Here’s the thing, though. Many of these students just don’t think in the right ways. They have no actual talent for science and are not doing well. My friend refuses to graduate engineers that cannot function in that capacity.

    THis is not to say these are not bright people. There are just different kinds of intelligence.

    It has surprised me greatly, but it is pretty clear that the STEM path is not for everyone.

  12. it dosen’t matter how much yo upgrade your skills, after 40 you are not going to get hired!! from experience unfortunately!

  15. She saw how well it worked for Obama. We hired him to be president. Twice. On nothing but his work experience as a community agitator.

  17. I’m in higher ed, and what saddens me here is that this woman was convinced by someone’s sales pitch that such a degree would lead to an amazing, meaningful future where she’d contribute to truth, justice, and yada, yada, yada. That’s how the “x-studies” industry gets the headcount to perpetuate itself; it preys on idealism by pushing emotional buttons.
    I’ve no objection to students taking such a course of studies for personal enrichment, but if they do they should go in with their eyes open about the prospects for someone with such a degree.

  18. Step one, major in gender studies while the young man across the hall majors in engineering. Step two, complain that you only earn a fraction of what he earns because of sexism.

  19. She can always hope to get married and live off a man, because everyone knows strident feminists are good wife material.

    I remember in undergrad, the guys told me, “you gotta take a women’s studies class, all the women are smoking hot.”

    Oh wait, that was French not women’s studies…

  20. Why?

    HR. And lawyers.

    Look, if you’ve got experience in C, then you can script in Python. I know this. All the people in the field know this. If you’re a good programmer, it matters not what “language” you know.

    You’re a _programmer_. Change to .Net, or LISP – a _programmer_ just needs to get ramped up to the language, libraries and tada.

    Same with sysadmins. If you’re a crackerjack HPUX guy, you’ll be just fine on AIX.

    But HR wants you to give them a winnowing list that will knock down 90% of applicants automatically.

    And so they (likely) won’t be sued when the diversity non-hire who’s once seen a football program sues because they weren’t hired.

    Who cares about work, if it’s not HR, it’s not important.

  24. It’s like the NBA dream: Kids see that a comparative handful of pro sports stars are multimillionaire superstars and the kids neglect everything else to chase that dream.

    Well, OK, the pinnacle of professional athletic skill is lavishly rewarded. But if you fall short . . .

    Similarly, college girls read feminist authors and take classes with feminist professors and think, “Hey, I want to be like that.” And for some small number of students, this actually does lead to careers in academia, publishing, etc.

    But where is the market demand for mediocre women’s studies majors, as compared to mediocre math teachers or mediocre business managers? Some skills are in so much demand that you don’t really have to be that good to earn a living in the field — Edward Snowden dropped out of high school and quite obviously found a demand for his skills as a computer programmer — whereas the demand for “gender studies” majors doesn’t provide real opportunity for the typical graduate.

  26. But where is the market demand for mediocre women’s studies majors

    Right now? Mediocre schools who are “behind” by not having whole rafts of faculty in “* Studies”, and enough diversity VP’s.

    Actually a huge market if she’d realize it. Our local tech school has gotten in trouble for not having enough Women/African American studies courses.

    …. Maybe she can come teach the proper non-heteropatriarichal way to weld?

  27. At some point during her baccalaureate degree studies, it should have occurred to her that her degree in Social Justice might not help her land that great, in-her-field job. At that point, she should have said, “I think I’ll get my masters in business administration rather than Gender Studies.” Instead, she decided to double down.

    Howsomeever, I hear that there will be someone needed in Gender Studies for a prisoner at Fort Leavenworth very soon, with a potential career of 7½ to 32½ years.

  28. But let’s face facts: being a hotel desk clerk might not pay that great salary, but it is good, honest work.

  29. A lot of Corps will let the old geek go, to get the young geek.

    Yup. The young geek will work 100 hours, if you’ll provide coffee, you might get even more time!

    And he’ll prototype whiz-bang systems! And then go over estimates by 4-5x (Hey, this should only take a day, and this, heck, I should have that pounded out in a week, tops. 2 if the input is difficult.)

    Or you get the guys with the experience who will deliver a functioning system to specs in the agreed time.

    Of course, their estimates are much longer, too. That’s “Bad”.

  32. “My degrees mean nothing.”

    This is possibly the smartest thing she’s ever said.

    My degrees “mean nothing”.

    Hell, my degree is in polymer engineering, and now I herd electrons.

    It _does_ get me in the door, with places that insist on a Bachelors.

    But the question is, with that, what can you _do_ with “your degree”?

    I learned a lot in college. Most of it wasn’t part of my field. Some of it was how to twiddle your thumbs and play nice while some bureaucrat followed a stupid list.

    And yes, that’s an important signalling mechanism to me now with real world experience.

    “I can’t stand all the bullshit, college is stupid” – real applicant for a job. “No.” “But they’ve got all this experience and..” “And their tenure is rarely over a year. Think about how much BS we complain about. Think they’ll manage that well?” “Uh.” “Right. No.”

  33. I am sure there are plenty of government agencies that will hire her. Grievance yesterday, grievance today, grievance forever!

  34. I am a STEM drop out. After spending six years in Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club (underwater section), I have come back to school as an accounting student.

    Fear my Spreadsheets!

  35. City, State, Federal and International government. That explains a lot. They literally have no other hope in life.

  36. Actually, the quote from ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ is “This life’s hard man, but it’s harder if you’re stupid!”

  38. A 50 year old Marine’s job is to yell, “Take that hill, private!” at the the 20 year old Marines. That’s as true now as it was when we called our 50-year-old Marines “centurions.”

  39. But being a hotel clerk will certainly pay more than any job that actually requires a Social Justice degree.

  40. Those majors are probably actually worse than useless. They advertise to any prospective employer that you are a regressive easily manipulated moron that would cause their company harm. Anyone who hires you will have to be an ideological ally.

  41. Peace Studies can be summed up in five words: “War is not the answer”. There, you now have a BA with honors in Peace Studies.
    Gender Studies can be summed up at the Master’s level in four words: “Man bad, woman good”. There, you can now say you have been through the Masters in Gender Studies, ready to defend your thesis (which, by the way, has to be “Man bad, woman good” or it won’t fly).

  45. What a great insight, ast. I suspect that any sane interviewer would run from the whiny, bitchy, men are pigs applicant. These social justice clowns can create havoc in any workplace they infect. The environment quickly changes from “we can do this project”, to “how much incremental expenditure will be required to fend off frivolous lawsuits”. Then a quick off-shore metric and bye-bye jobs.

Comments are closed.