The feminization of college majors

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>A question for the guys,</p>

<p>You constantly hear/see from the media around you that females are put off by traditionally male majors due to it having to many males. So what they do is to encourage more women to join. By doing that, it encourages even more to join. Now there are no such groups such as that for guys. You don't see advertizing for guys to become "education" majors. I don't know of any scholarships specifically for guys in female dominated majors. </p>

<p>Some traditionally male majors are now predominantly women. Majors such as biology, psychology, liberal arts, etc have now more women than men in them, at least at my undergrad. </p>

<p>So my question is; Do you get put off by these college majors now that they are "chick" majors? If a guy told me he was Interior Design, I'd laugh inside. The idea of it being feminine makes it sound less challenging.</p>

2

<p>The sad thing is, within that pile of **** of a post, I actually agree with one point: where /are/ all of the scholarships for men entering women-dominated fields? </p>

<p><em>shrug</em></p>

3

<p>why waste your time posting then?</p>

4

<p>That's dumb.</p>

5

<p>"*Do you get put off by these college majors now that they are "chick" majors? *"</p>

<p>Yes. Girls have cooties and my PCP was fresh out of shots. I mean seriously...who'd want to be around a bunch of girls?</p>

6

<p>
[quote]
You constantly hear/see from the media around you that females are put off by traditionally male majors due to it having to many males. So what they do is to encourage more women to join. By doing that, it encourages even more to join.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, that's obvious. Colleges try to maintain a certain level of diversity and make sure that the minority are not underrepresented. They want more women to join precisely because women are underrepresented. Just like how there are many minority-outreach programs and they get URM boost in admissions. You don't see colleges fiercely going after the Caucasian student...because most colleges are filled with them already. Same principle.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I don't know of any scholarships specifically for guys in female dominated majors.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>And I don't know any scholarships specifically for "outstanding Caucasian achievement" but I've seen scholarships for outstanding achievement for African-Americans, for example.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Some traditionally male majors are now predominantly women. Majors such as biology, psychology, liberal arts, etc have now more women than men in them, at least at my undergrad.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I don't know why these majors are considered traditionally male majors. If males were the majority in these majors 10, 20, or 50 years ago I may be more inclined to believe that this is due to the fact that fewer women were attending college at the time compared to now. I don't see any inherent reason why biology or psychology is a "traditionally male major.</p>

<p>
[quote]
So my question is; Do you get put off by these college majors now that they are "chick" majors? If a guy told me he was Interior Design, I'd laugh inside. The idea of it being feminine makes it sound less challenging.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Do you know anything about engineering majors? Now there's a traditionally male major if I've ever seen one (historically the male population in engineering just completely overwhelms the female population...even today). Let's take one of the top engineering programs in the country, UC Berkeley. Surely that school is able to attract some bright female students. Yet if you walk into a physics or engineering course, 70-80% are all male. I know of one physics discussion section that has 4 girls out of 22 students, and it's not even an engineering course! Trust me, that's not an environment guys go for. What's the most detested dorm at UC Berkeley, the one no one wants to end up in? Bowles, the all-male dorm.</p>

<p>The problem is some "chick" majors like Gender Studies, don't get much respect not because it's filled with women, but because it tends to be an easy major. Engineering doesn't get respect because it's filled with "men." It's because engineering is just a tough major. If the case were reversed and there are actually 70-80% women in engineering, it would still get tremendous respect.</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
Some traditionally male majors are now predominantly women. Majors such as biology, psychology, liberal arts, etc have now more women than men in them, at least at my undergrad.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I hate to break it to you, but four-year colleges these days are predominantly women. A lot of private schools keep the m/f ratio at 50/50, but most public schools have more women than men by a fair margin (engineering schools being the exception).</p>

<p>And you may say that it would then make sense to have more groups encouraging males, but look at your professors--chances are that the majority of them (especially in the "traditionally male majors") are male. Despite the fact that almost every discipline graduates more females, the majority of the top positions are held by males with no real sign of change.</p>

8

<p>males have a slight advantage getting into clinical psych phd programs these days (the average program has about 300 applicants vying for 5 spots)</p>

9

<p>I like these types of posts...obviously. It's nice to hear a gender topic that starts with a guy. It's different.</p>

<p>That said, a lot of "chick" majors are really just majors that guys avoid because they assume there's no money in them. It's not really women or universities who are doing this. They aren't entirely to blame. Guys tend to go for the business end so they can make some ducats, rather than help their fellow man or feed their intellect.</p>

10

<p>because its ridiculously tough to be a girl in a dude major. any guy could go out and say "i want to be a nurse" and he'd make it. why? because males throughout history have been the dominate half of the species. they won't get shot down and ignored during class. i'm getting ready to go off to my engineering class where its 24 guys and me, and a male prof. does the professor ever call on me? no. do the other males ever ask me for help? no. if i give a solution that is the same as a male, his is better.</p>

<p>men in nursing, education, ect don't see that. that's why on average about half of women entering engineering leave and recieve a different degree.</p>

11

<p>"The idea of it being feminine makes it sound less challenging."</p>

<p>So basically you're a sexist a-hole. No one wants you in gender studies classes, so don't worry yourself about it.</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
in gender studies classes

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Gender studies classes are a joke, anyways.</p>

13

<p>We need to get more women in Engineering, to many dudes. Way to many. Kinda scary.</p>

<p>Engineering is really tough and I am not sure why more women should take it on. I wish they would. Im sick of working with dudes.</p>

<p>Id like to point out that engineering does attract some feminine people, engineering has alot of gays. I mean alot of gays. Id go for 70%.</p>

14

<p>Schools try make classes diverse so it is more appealing to all groups of people to join. Obviously there are/were measures to increase women and minority involvement. But there are no efforts in female dominated fields to attract more men.</p>

<p>So my question is. If a class was over 70% females, would you be turned off from that?</p>

15

<p>I work in my school's admissions office and I saw "gender diversity" written as a note on a male fashion design applicant's file...I'm sure there are more on others that I haven't seen. So you'd probably get a slight admissions boost, don't know about financial aid.</p>

<p>What I find interesting is that you don't really find a lot of schools that have significantly more women than men, but you do find a whole lot of schools with significantly more men than women (I go to one). I've been the only girl in a lot of my classes and it doesn't make me want to run screaming from the room, but I've also been in a few classes with only one guy and he always makes several comments about, "ahh, I'm the only guy in here, it's all girls, awwwwkwaaaard" It doesn't bother any of the girls in my major that they're outnumbered by the guys, but the guys will sit around and make comments about "yeah, my roommate freshman year, he was one of three male graphic design majors, lololol". They'll also make comments about, "oh, I didn't think you'd know that/be able to do that". Why? Because I'm a girl and apparently we're all stupid. Why do the guys have to be so close-minded about it? I still really don't get it.</p>

16

<p>The programs only try to attract women because some positions used to be "all male". Think back to the early times: boys were told they could be anything they want to be in the world Girls were groomed to be housewives, nurses, teachers, ect. Again, boys = anything, girls = limited. Its been this way since the cavemen days simply because men are the dominant gender. Its sad, but true. Every program has always been open to men, whereas women have been limited until the past 4-5 decades. This is why there is more focus on getting women into the typical male fields, rather than men into female fields. </p>

<p>Also, I have friends that go "oooh, you're in engineering! you must be able to get lots of dates!". No. You go to class to learn, who cares who else is in there. If you happen to talk to someone in your class outside of class, fine. But it shouldn't matter who's in your class.</p>

17

<p>To VT: It's your fault that you're laughing inside at the thought of a guy majoring in interior design. You let the media brainwash you. But I agree that more incentives should be offered to men interested in women-dominated majors.</p>

18

<p>In my PR major its usually a 10:1 Girl:Guy ratio(thas a conservative estimate!)</p>

<p>I'm fine with it, guys stay the hell out of my major! </p>

<p>Im a guy, by the way.</p>

<p>As far as scholarships and incentives for girls to go into traditionally guy majors, while i may not be supprotive of that but I would like to point out that we are suffering from a severe lack of science and math majors. So in my book, any incentive, for anyone, is alright.</p>

19

<p>tell me, is art history a male dominated or female dominated major?</p>

<p>i have a feeling that regular history majors are male dominated.</p>

20

<p>^
The majority of Art History majors are female.</p>

<p>I completely agree with shagpin, except my major is Classics. :cool:</p>