<p>What would you do with a degree in women's studies? This is the latest trend at the school to go in to.</p>
<p>Women’s Studies is hardly “the latest trend,” it’s been a department for decades now at many schools. In fact, it’s been so established that now women’s studies departments are changing into women and gender studies departments, or just gender studies departments, to encompass more study of transgender issues and other issues related to gender. </p>
<p>A degree in Women’s studies is a social science discipline. So like other social sciences it takes you lots of places.</p>
<p>It is a great question to ask “what will I do with this degree?” for any degree program. Often one can go to a college’s website and then to the college’s department to learn what recent graduates or outstanding alums have done. </p>
<p>It is important to know what a particular degree is usually used for as well. One friend got a history degree from a respected college – only to find that most of her classmates were using the history degree to go further in that academic field (ie, they were planning to become professors of history). She did not have that in mind. As she says “I bought into the notion that you can do anything with a liberal arts degree.”</p>
<p>She did not find that to be the case for her. Her department was well set up to send students on to graduate school but had few leads or resources for her. </p>
<p>She is now working as an Administrative Assistant. She loves her work. She admits that she could have gotten a cheaper training by going to the local community college – but is proud of her name brand college and of her degree. </p>
<p>I would think that Women’s Studies might be helpful if one were going to work in labor or personnel areas. It could also be a precursor to a psychology or psychiatry training. It could be helpful for a guidance counselor or for a conflict resolution mediator.</p>
<p>“What would you do with a degree in women’s studies?”</p>
<p>Become a professional complainer? (Only thing that obviously fits the “degree”.)</p>
<p>Yeah-- women have to study it, toblin. Men, on the other hand, have a natural gift for it.</p>
<p>I will point out, no one really had a good response for what you would do with a degree in women’s studies. Except professional complainer, along with the all the ethnic culture, language and lit, and poli sci majors.</p>
<p>querty,
There are plenty of majors that don’t specifically lent themselves to a particular career path. My older s’s Univ had a major in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations. Whatcha gonna do with that major?</p>
<p>And the obvious answer to the OP’s question is… get a Ph.D. and go on to teach women’s studies at the undergrad or grad level. :)</p>
<p>Lighten up. No need to chastize parents. Better to treat ■■■■■ behavior with humor than with additional ■■■■■-like behavior.</p>
<p>I have had students with degrees in Women’s Studies go to law school, med school, get MBAs, Ph.D.s, get jobs in a wide variety of fields. No different than my students in other fields in the social sciences, or humanities.</p>
<p>Yes, inthbiz agreed-- it goes without say that there are lots of non-professional degree seeking majors (eg non a BBA or engineering degrees) that lead to advanced degrees, professional school or a host of careers. Many people end up in careers totally unrelated to their undergrad major.</p>
<p>prefers Discovery Channel to the View.</p>
<p>Mythbusters amirite?</p>
<p>A degree in Women’s Studies makes you fully qualified to be a woman everywhere you go.</p>
<p>(joking)</p>
<p>Another note about Women’s Studies: two of my friends graduated with degrees in it. One is currently a counselor, and the other is in the process of becoming a social justice coordinator at a university.</p>
<p>medical school.</p>
<p>How about going to work for the many women’s organizations out there – Planned Parenthood, MS Foundation, AAUW, Emily’s List, etc. There are 222 listed on the website for the National Council of Women’s Organizations ([National</a> Council of Women’s Organizations - Our Members](<a href=“http://www.womensorganizations.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=73&Itemid=82]National”>http://www.womensorganizations.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=73&Itemid=82)).</p>
<p>I’d be curious to know whether women’s studies majors are growing or shrinking. Were they perhaps seen (at least at first) as an alternative to male-dominated departments? And if so, is that less of an issue now?</p>
<p>What people do with women’s studies degrees?</p>
<p>Law school
Work for nonprofits
Become social workers, doctors, psychologists, economists
Get graduate degrees and become professors</p>
<p>Those are just a few of the things that people do with women’s studies degrees. BTW, women’s studies has been a field since the 1970s.</p>
<p>On a more serious note, my niece has a degree in WS, and works on Capitol Hill as the press secretary for a Senator.</p>
<p>When we were in college, “Women’s Studies” as a major didn’t quite exist, although there was lots of agitation for it. My spouse, unable to major in Women’s Studies, double-majored in psychology (concentrating on gender issues) and American Studies (mainly women’s history). What did she do with that? Among other things, developed low-income housing, ran a division of a municipal public health agency, designed and implemented a large urban economic development initiative and numerous programs addressing maternal and child health and early childhood education, and ran a state agency with an 11-figure budget and over 18,000 employees.</p>
<p>One of my tennis friends’ wife is a WS prof at BC. I’ll have to ask him what the students do after they graduate.</p>
<p>@Hunt – That would be interesting to know. I know that at Smith College (cradle of feminism that it is), our Women’s Studies department changed it’s name to the Study of Women and Gender (or SWAG, as we affectionately dub it) since it’s course offerings now include things beyond just the study of the female gender. I think it would be interesting to know if other departments at other schools have made similar changes, or if previously indepenent Women’s Studies departmetns have now been brought into larger gender studies departments that also house disciplines like Queer studies.</p>