<p>Hollywod is hiring Women’s Studies majors to write for “Mad Men.”</p>
<p>Wellesly College is changing the name of their History of Warfare class to “Mens Studies.”</p>
<p>“I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan…” I have had better salary growth than my H, and after 26/30 years in the work place are within 5% of each other. And all this time I could have been siphoning off of him. </p>
<p>Searching through the file cabinets in my brain brings to mind a book from awhile ago on the myths of motherhood, namely the ‘warm and nurturing stay at home mom’. IIRC, that was for a very brief period, relatively speaking, in the annals of time. That post-WWII ideal was short-lived and probably won’t be seen again. Remember all the women who worked their tails off while the men were off fighting who lost their jobs and <em>had</em> to stay home. No choice. Choice is a good thing. The options available to women - and men - today, collaborative decisions about work/career/parenthood are unlike anything prior. </p>
<p>My mom used to joke about sitting around, eating bon-bons and reading dirty books. By the time she was able to do so, she had type 2 diabetes and the dirty books got too dirty. </p>
<p>I daresay that that man who abandoned his wife would never have had anything to settle on her w/o her support and work at home.</p>
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<p>I can only speak for my university and the people I know, but our Women and Gender Studies department is booming. It’s taking on a lot more concentrations [LGBT studies, for example], and many people are taking on thematic minors in it. Also, I’ve noticed two odd trends: first, most of the GWS majors I know are males who are feminists, and many of the women I know in it have GWS as a minor with a science field as their major. I don’t think many of them view it as an ‘alternative’ to a male-dominated field, but rather just another part of a well-rounded education.</p>