# Gender Studies Major...what's it good for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 24, 2019, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578 "2019-07-24T23:42:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/1 "2019-07-24T23:42:10Z")
Suppose I go to a Liberal Arts College and go for Gender Studies as a major. What kind of job could I expect upon graduation? What about other XYZ Studies, like Minorities Studies? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/2 "2019-07-24T23:47:41Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > What kind of job could I expect upon graduation? Teaching gender studies at a liberal arts college. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/3 "2019-07-24T23:58:31Z")
Human Resources Non-Profit Advocacy Government/Politics Journalism Museums Social Work/Psychology All would use skills learned in group-focused studies. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/4 "2019-07-25T00:30:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Teaching gender studies at a liberal arts college. And then only after you got your PhD. I suppose there could also be openings at the consulting firms that run sexual harassment training for corporate employers. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/5 "2019-07-25T01:52:30Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Suppose I go to a Liberal Arts College and go for Gender Studies as a major. > > What kind of job could I expect upon graduation? > > What about other XYZ Studies, like Minorities Studies? Liberal arts degrees aren’t supposed to be a focussed vocational or professional training. They impart skills (e.g. of analysis, writing, critical thinking, etc) which can be deployed in a wide range of occupations, but they don’t particularly qualify you for any specific occupation. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/6 "2019-07-25T01:56:34Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Suppose I go to a Liberal Arts College and go for Gender Studies as a major. > What kind of job could I expect upon graduation? > > What about other XYZ Studies, like Minorities Studies? You could be an example of people in news stories who “Have a college degree and can’t find a job” or “Have a college degree and work at McDonald’s” ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/7 "2019-07-25T02:09:30Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > You could be an example of people in news stories who “Have a college degree and can’t find a job” or “Have a college degree and work at McDonald’s” No. Generally speaking, LACs assume you are going to go to grad school. An MBA program, Law school or med school are all viable options with a gender studies degree (provided you took the science you need for med school). Do understand: it’s a really recent phenomenon that middle-class and poor kids go to LACs. They were built for and by the children of the professional classes to prepare students to enter grad school. Fifty years ago they majored in French or English or Philosophy, and then off to professional school. Now they major in Gender Studies or whatever. Same idea. That said, they also have very, very good career services departments. So a student majoring in gender studies might well be doing all sorts of internships in the summers. Those internships are probably teaching them a suite of professional skills that would determine what sort of job they will go get. That same career services department will also know how to set them up with companies that do a lot of promoting-from-within and where you need just any degree from the right sort of school to get started. Think financial services, insurance, human resources. I will say that “gender studies” from your local regional state university is more problematic. Your local regional won’t have the network and the career services, and they probably aren’t as consciously preparing you for professional school. It’s not the kids with a particular major that flounder after college. It’s the kid who doesn’t have a PLAN. Now, some majors tend to attract aimless kids with no plan. And in some majors the plan in self-evident (engineering, accounting, teaching). But there are plenty of perfectly cromulent plans that start with a degree in gender studies. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/8 "2019-07-25T02:17:21Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > No. No? You doubt there are people with college degrees that can’t find a job? You doubt there are people with college degrees that work at McDonald’s? Or you doubt they usually have BA degrees in a Liberal Art? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/9 "2019-07-25T02:20:57Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > No? You doubt there are people with college degrees that can’t find a job? You doubt there are people with college degrees that work at McDonald’s? Or you doubt they usually have BA degrees in a Liberal Art? Maybe try reading the entire post, and not just the first word? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/10 "2019-07-25T02:24:57Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > No? You doubt there are people with college degrees that can’t find a job? You doubt there are people with college degrees that work at McDonald’s? Or you doubt they usually have BA degrees in a Liberal Art? I doubt that the primary utility of a gender studies degree is to be in a newspaper article about college graduates who can’t get a job. I think the majority of people getting gender studies degrees from LACs go on to make a good living, usually after completing professional school. I thin the most successful ones were ALWAYS aiming at professional school (MBA, Medicine, Law) and that a degree in gender studies was a perfectly reasonable and prudent step in that plan. Do you think everyone who graduates with a degree in gender studies can’t find a job? Again, the people that can’t find work are the people without a plan. And they often finish (squeak through) with a liberal arts degree, because that’s the easiest thing for a person with no plan to manage to finish–though many of them started with “practical” majors and couldn’t hack it. That’s a completely different situation than the people that want to major in the liberal arts for a specific outcome and with a specific plan. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/11 "2019-07-25T02:33:01Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I doubt that the primary utility of a gender studies degree is to be in a newspaper article about college graduates who can’t get a job I doubt that too. > [@](#): > > Do you think everyone who graduates with a degree in gender studies can’t find a job? No, I don’t think that. > [@](#): > > And they often finish (squeak through) with a liberal arts degree, because that’s the easiest thing for a person with no plan to manage to finish–though many of them started with “practical” majors and couldn’t hack it. So, you think many people who can’t hack “practical” majors get a liberal arts degree? ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/12 "2019-07-25T02:42:21Z")
Absolutely nothin’! ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/13 "2019-07-25T02:52:03Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I doubt that too. Well, the OP asked what can one “expect” with a gender studies degree, so your answer seemed to suggest that this is the expected outcome, not an outlier. > [@](#): > > So, you think many people who can’t hack “practical” majors get a liberal arts degree? Well, I think mostly they drop out, but in some cases, yes. That doesn’t mean everyone that has a liberal arts degree couldn’t hack engineering. Look, I’m quite comfortable stating that the nature of liberal arts makes it more plausible that an aimless fuckwit with no plan and no real desire to do well in college could squeak through with a bunch of Cs and still manage to graduate. That doesn’t mean the degree is less serious or less valuable, or that people that take it seriously and get the most most out of it learn less or have less to contribute than more practical, applied majors. I learned a TON in college–it utterly transformed me, deepened my thinking, taught me nuance and gave me the ability to convey it. But I think there were some fuckwits in there with me who did the minimum and got nothing out of it. That’s fine. I didn’t go to college for a piece of paper, I went to learn the skills I needed to, among other things, be really, really good at my job–and I am and I make way more than I ever expected to. I rather imagine the fuckwits managed to get some sort of degree but are likely doing some job they could have done without it because at the end of the day, it’s what you know how to do, not just your credentials, that matters. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/14 "2019-07-25T02:54:51Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Absolutely nothin’! I know you are making a joke about a song, but do you believe that? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/15 "2019-07-25T03:03:23Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Well, the OP asked what can one “expect” with a gender studies degree, so your answer seemed to suggest that this is the expected outcome, not an outlier. Well, I did say “could” and not “will” or “probably will” > [@](#): > > I rather imagine the fuckwits managed to get some sort of degree but are likely doing some job they could have done without it because at the end of the day, it’s what you know how to do, not just your credentials, that matters. I’m glad that’s the case. In cyber security (my field), credentials are often all that matters. Keyword searches on resumes are pretty powerful. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/16 "2019-07-25T03:11:46Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Well, I did say “could” and not “will” or “probably will” > > I’m glad that’s the case. In cyber security (my field), credentials are often all that matters. Keyword searches on resumes are pretty powerful. Really? Even after that first job? I mean, certifications/degrees whatever can be necessary, but are they sufficient? Are keyword searches just for certifications, or for skills? Because the most successful people I know in tech in general and cybersecurity specifically don’t have tech degrees, and in many cases no degree at all: they just knew how to do things, and kept learning how to do new things, and leveraged those skills into more advanced positions–and they often did so through networks of people who knew them and knew what they could do, not by throwing resumes into the void to be keyword-searched. But I am in my mid-40s and my generation was the one that was in college when tech really caught on, and a lot of people fell into it. Gender studies majors with a help-desk job had a pretty good set of options, sometimes. Twenty years into a career in tech, are most people changing jobs by sending resumes in cold? Serious question, because that’s not how I envision it. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/17 "2019-07-25T03:18:09Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Really? Even after that first job? I mean, certifications/degrees whatever can be necessary, but are they sufficient? Are keyword searches just for certifications, or for skills? Because the most successful people I know in tech in general and cybersecurity specifically don’t have tech degrees, and in many cases no degree at all: they just knew how to do things, and kept learning how to do new things, and leveraged those skills into more advanced positions–and they often did so through networks of people who knew them and knew what they could do, not by throwing resumes into the void to be keyword-searched. But I am in my mid-40s and my generation was the one that was in college when tech really caught on, and a lot of people fell into it. Gender studies majors with a help-desk job had a pretty good set of options, sometimes. > > Twenty years into a career in tech, are most people changing jobs by sending resumes in cold? Serious question, because that’s not how I envision it. Well, I work in government, so maybe it’s different. But the people I’ve seen get hired and who I have to work with have a severe lack of skills but have certifications that they proudly display in their e-mail signature blocks. Have a CISSP? You’re hired! ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/18 "2019-07-25T05:28:23Z")
One of the best management consultants I’ve ever worked with had a degree in gender studies from Smith. Another had a degree in Kinesiology from McMasters. Both went on to get MBAs from top tier schools. Neither of them were working in areas where their undergraduate degrees were at all relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/19 "2019-07-25T06:10:58Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Human Resources > Non-Profit Advocacy > Government/Politics > Journalism > Museums > Social Work/Psychology > > All would use skills learned in group-focused studies. Publicity could also use someone conscious of how different social groups perceive different things; gender is one of the labels used on marketing and polling sectioning. Nava, who according to marketing people doesn’t exist (“high-income spinster who can read maps and likes computers” is not a marketing sector). A lot of the stuff I’m interested in, from cars to insurance or banking services, is completely targetted to men. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578/20 "2019-07-25T06:11:06Z")
When getting a liberal arts degree, the important issue us not what you do WITH the degree. The important thing is what you do WHILE getting the degree. Internships,volunteering,networking,networking, and more networking. As mentioned upthread–it’s all about having a plan. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-studies-major-whats-it-good-for/837578.md?page=2)