OK, what kind of major is Womens Studies?

when you take, say, nine times as many courses in one subject as in another, you get to know the one subject and its methodologies A LOT better than the other.

Option wrote:

Going to graduate school in chemistry is a job - you get a stipend! Once you have........

Not me

you're the fishy one wrote:

I heard a similar thing about Race Studies, but it turned out to be a terrible conspiracy whereby black people created entire fields of knowledge in order to further consolidate and defend their economic and political power.

Is this how one defends political power?

optional wrote:

Option wrote:

Going to graduate school in chemistry is a job - you get a stipend! Once you have........

Not me

:(

Actually, jackass, I only posted once on this thread before this, so it seems that more than one person thinks you're a sexist, ignorant fool. Excuses and fabricated biases? I suppose people fabricated the gendered wage gap, rape statistics, and misinterpreted all of the misogynist shit you've been posting on here.

BTW--people do study masculinities. There's a lot of research on why a bunch of skinny runner dudes would be complicit in protecting a version of masculinity that perpetuates an unobtainable, Rambo meets Bill Gates cultural ideal.

Wow, multiple personalities and anger issues. Again - How did a degree in women's studies get Rowbury to the Olympics? waiting....

you're the fishy one wrote:

There's a lot of research on why a bunch of skinny runner dudes would be complicit in protecting a version of masculinity that perpetuates an unobtainable, Rambo meets Bill Gates cultural ideal.

Really?

Yep.

Okay, there are a lot of interesting responses on this thread, and I am willing to admit that I understated the particular value of a major.

A couple of points:

1) I was not referring to an engineering major. Those who go through an engineering program do indeed learn a lot of specific skills that they can immediately apply. Of course, this specialization, like all specializations, comes at a cost of a more general education.

2) Yes, a major is important. More important than the particular major (I would argue) is the entire course of study that a student undertakes. Major courses and non-major courses should narrate the particular set of skills. Undergraduates should work on thinking about how their entire course of study prepares them to enter the working world. It is my belief that motivated and excellent students can connect almost any major course of study to almost any future career--even philosophy and women's studies majors.

3) To the Chem major who talked about how chem students get paid to study at the graduate level. So do philosophy majors. I know this from experience.

4) My advice to any undergraduates reading this thread is to consider carefully how and whether a particular major aligns with your interests and strengths as a student and as a person. It is a competitive market. For this very reason, it is essential that students take subjects that they are interested in and good at. This interest will come through in interviews, in performance, and it will reflect your strengths.

5) All that said, the purpose of a bachelor's degree is to introduce you to two aspects of your education. An education should be both general and specific. There is not enough time in 4 years to gain enough specific knowledge to be of much use as a specialist. There is enough time, however, to be introduced to the specific nature of a field and to determine whether and how you would like to go further in it. The primary effect of an undergraduate education, in my view, is to give you general knowledge and the general skills I mentioned in previous posts. The introduction to a specific field, to my mind, falls under the general category--as an introduction to the idea that particular fields of inquiry have particular methods and criteria of knowledge.

6) Enough! or Too Much!

fishy fishy fishy fishy wrote:

Wow, multiple personalities and anger issues. Again - How did a degree in women's studies get Rowbury to the Olympics? waiting....

I'd say Rowbury got to the Olympics in SPITE of her degree in women's studies.

Women's studies and the olympics--if it was not for the work of the women and men who created the work that is studied in women's studies, we wouldn't have women competing in world class athletics.

But aside from all of that, fishy fool, a non-lame-brained person would recognize as ironic the fact that one of our most lauded runners studied a subject that you are currently derailing on a running message board.

I would instantly think anyone with a Women's Studies, or any Race Studies degree is a psychotic prejudiced moron without any real skill. My girlfriend is a feminist and studied "gender studies" in undergrad. Get her talking about anything gender and you'd learn more from an evangelical preacher talking about the history of the Earth. Complete unsupported (and often long known to be false) hateful (towards men) nonsense.

Same goes for the African American Studies class I took. Many of the writings in that book from PhDs was some of the most ridiculous shit I've ever read and could probably be refuted by any high school speech and debate member.

I've found usually the one's playing victim are the most prejudiced around.

As for the sciences, in my searching for grad schools, I was unable to even find a single program that didn't supply a fair stipend. Most programs covered tuition, housing, and included an additional $20-30k on top of that, and once one gets a PhD, the payscale doubles at the minimum.

I really don't know what people learn in Women's and Gender Studies class. I do know that my small, liberal arts school had approximately 12 Women's and Gender Studies majors, and there is not enough tequila in the world that could make me ever find any one of them remotely attractive. They were all overweight, unintelligent, loud, and annoying. They wrote opinionated, illogical articles for the school paper, and found a way to blame everything wrong in the world on men. They took pictures of their boobs and put them all over campus to illustrate that it wasn't fair for men to go shirtless and not women. This was on a prospective student visit day. They were not attractive boobs either. They had eating disorder awareness week. The only problem was they all had eating disorders, they couldn't stay out of the god damn dessert line. If men were white, Christian, Republican, athletes, members of a fraternity, etc, that made them even more evil.

Men, if you don't want have to deal with this bullshit its very simple, don't let your daughters major in Women's and Gender Studies. The only jobs related to the major are education, advocacy groups, abortion rights etc. If students stop enrolling in the classes, the programs will die out. There isn't really any private sector demand for the subject matter. You will be doing your children a favor by making sure they don't have a useless degree and be making a much better investment in their future. You will also help stem the tide of a force that furthers abortion, divorce, children in daycare, and other countless threats to American civilization.

There is a Mens Studies major. It is called History.[/quote]

WELL SAID.

Men, if you don't want have to deal with this bullshit its very simple, don't let your daughters major in Women's and Gender Studies.

Thankfully, the women's movement has made it possible for women to CHOOSE a field of study.

There isn't really any private sector demand for the subject matter.

Turns out that I'm completely funded in a similar subject matter by the private sector!

You will also help stem the tide of a force that furthers abortion, divorce, children in daycare, and other countless threats to American civilization.

People thought that Abolition was a threat to American civilization. Really, it's people like you.

The entirety of the Womens Studies curriculum can be summarized by the following:

They R Nutz

There, now save yourself 4 years and $100K. You know all you need to know.

Regards

Most of the curriculum - hell, the whole institution of higher learning - is BS. Universities are a medieval institution. They were formed to train priests.

The whole institution is radically outdated and should be drastically overhauled. Why the hell does a mechanical engineer need to know anything about Shakespeare, or Betty Friedan, or biology, or the Civil War . . . or anything but bloody mechanical engineering? Why do doctors and lawyers need an undergraduate degree?

It's to perpetuate the PhD/Tenure track model which slowly enriches a select few, who maintain a high quality of life and can hit on coeds for 40 years. Duh!

honorable discharge wrote:

There is a Mens Studies major. It is called History.

WELL SAID.[/quote]

Or physics, or math, or philosophy, or engineering, or any of the other remotely useful or instructive disciplines.