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The main subject in this story was pursuing a PhD in "Women's Studies". Not to disparage that field of study, but it's quite obvious that it is a pretty useless

The main subject in this story was pursuing a PhD in "Women's Studies". Not to disparage that field of study, but it's quite obvious that it is a pretty useless degree that limits you to a career as a Women's Studies professor. I don't think this is a good illustration of people who leave PhD programs

anothergoogler 8y ago
I feel like your comment leads to every debate about the practical value of a liberal arts degrees, ever. Either that or you're specifically devaluing Women's Studies. That makes no sense, given the push for gender diversity in the business world (and in general).
- Retra 8y ago
  The business world isn't really hiring Women's Studies majors, regardless of the impact they've had on the industry.
gowld 8y ago
"Women's Studies" opens doors to a career as an author or a political activist. Like other PhDs, it prepares to have an impact on the world via the field of study. It's not a likely financially lucrative career, but it's not a useless one.
- Chris2048 8y ago
  Who's hiring authors/political activists, but refusing to hire non-PhDs?
dragonwriter 8y ago
> The main subject in this story was pursuing a PhD in "Women's Studies". Not to disparage that field of study, but it's quite obvious that it is a pretty useless degree that limits you to a career as a Women's Studies professor. It isn't obviously useless, or even less applicable than many social science degrees, but for signaling purposes it's probably less useful to get a Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary field like Women's Studies than in one of the fields of more broadly recognized utility which it overlaps (which you can probably do with exactly the same research.) Because pretty much the whole thing about interdisciplinary fields is that they (in terms of the whole field) cross traditional fields of study, which tend to align somewhat with vocational fields, which makes degrees in them (without considerstion of things like the area of your personal research) less useful for non-acadenic vocational signalling.

anothergoogler 8y ago

I feel like your comment leads to every debate about the practical value of a liberal arts degrees, ever. Either that or you're specifically devaluing Women's Studies. That makes no sense, given the push for gender diversity in the business world (and in general).

Retra 8y ago
The business world isn't really hiring Women's Studies majors, regardless of the impact they've had on the industry.

gowld 8y ago

"Women's Studies" opens doors to a career as an author or a political activist. Like other PhDs, it prepares to have an impact on the world via the field of study. It's not a likely financially lucrative career, but it's not a useless one.

Chris2048 8y ago
Who's hiring authors/political activists, but refusing to hire non-PhDs?

dragonwriter 8y ago

> The main subject in this story was pursuing a PhD in "Women's Studies". Not to disparage that field of study, but it's quite obvious that it is a pretty useless degree that limits you to a career as a Women's Studies professor. It isn't obviously useless, or even less applicable than many social science degrees, but for signaling purposes it's probably less useful to get a Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary field like Women's Studies than in one of the fields of more broadly recognized utility which it overlaps (which you can probably do with exactly the same research.) Because pretty much the whole thing about interdisciplinary fields is that they (in terms of the whole field) cross traditional fields of study, which tend to align somewhat with vocational fields, which makes degrees in them (without considerstion of things like the area of your personal research) less useful for non-acadenic vocational signalling.