The Student Room Group

Why do girls go for poorly paid degrees?

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2073703,00.html



I rarely hear girls say they chose a degree/career because of money, they all talk about their ''passion'' for it, like school has nothing to do with their future earnings. Many do it knowing full well that they won't even use that degree since they'll end working part-time or stay at home (even for Ivy league only 1/3 of female graduates work full time). I guess they don't need to worry about paying back their huge student loans since they'll never be earning the minimum required anyway. This is rarely the case with men, money plays a much bigger role. This is also why fewer and fewer men are going to university and doing well paid apprenticeships instead of some degree where the biggest challenge is not throwing up during the uni parties (women also choose the lowest paid apprenticeships, btw).

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I had a passion for Life sciences,so..I chose biomed
Because the vast majority of girls, deep down still expect to get into an LTR / marry a guy who is decently paid.
My friend (male) studying Physics at home: So what did you take as a degree
Me: History and IR
Him: haha, you won't go anywhere paid with that (he generally hates all Humanities)
Me: How much do you earn for your research work?
Him: (equivalent of) £5 per hour (back home in Romania)
Me: earns £20 per hour, whilst still at university. :sexface:

With that being said, I do agree in part with your point. Women do indeed dominate the lowest paying postgraduate jobs, and it takes an average of 5 years more for them to repay their loans compared to men. I wouldn't wholly blame them for this, some degrees should simply not exist at university. As long as they will exist, you will keep finding oblivious students willing to keep the lecture room seats warm.

This is my assumption, but some of that 1/3 are probably considering having children before seriously taking a career. I'll consider having children before taking any diplomatic role. Probably a year or two after I graduate and have a decent paying job to have a stable financial base for a family. In the meantime I'll probably teach or research.

I also think the latter part of your argument was unnecessary and irrelevant to your original point.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 4


All of your 'evidence' for this is purely based on what you have personally heard. Is it not a bit of an outdated view?

I'm choosing a degree solely based on the potential careers salary upon graduation (that's not to say I wouldn't enjoy the job - I enjoy the subject). As for my actual passions in life (music, writing)? I know they don't pay well, so I'm not doing a degree in them. My sister also chose a degree based on the potential career salaries (she's doing computing). A family friend - the wife earns a LOT more than her husband.

I don't want children - I want to progress my career; if I do get married, there's no way I'm quitting my job. I'd love to see all of your evidence, though, for these statements
Reply 5
Original post by celloel
All of your 'evidence' for this is purely based on what you have personally heard. Is it not a bit of an outdated view?

I'm choosing a degree solely based on the potential careers salary upon graduation (that's not to say I wouldn't enjoy the job - I enjoy the subject). As for my actual passions in life (music, writing)? I know they don't pay well, so I'm not doing a degree in them. My sister also chose a degree based on the potential career salaries (she's doing computing). A family friend - the wife earns a LOT more than her husband.

I don't want children - I want to progress my career; if I do get married, there's no way I'm quitting my job. I'd love to see all of your evidence, though, for these statements


Isn't it common knowledge that the best paying subjects are engineering/medicine/maths/physics etc and these are all male dominated
Women are passionate beings? :dontknow:

Not all women are the same, people are different and their life choices are different. :smile:
I'm really not interested in making pots of money. I'm doing a degree that will probably not get me into a high paid job. All I want to do with my life is help less fortunate people. (I currently work for a charity). Some things are more important than money (to me anyway).
Reply 8
If you have no inclination for male-dominated construction or engineering apprenticeships, and you don't want to do an apprenticeship in hair and beauty, retail or administration because they are mostly badly paid with no career progression, then university looks pretty much like your only hope to avoid or at least delay the dead-end job. I think that many girls who don't have an inclination for STEM and don't have the grades for medicine or law simply don't know what to do for a career, so for want of better alternatives they follow their "passion" and hope for the best.
Maybe girls are less motivated by money and they are generally more concerned about doing something that they love. I want to study History at university. I also have an idea about my future career path - it's certainly the sort of job that you don't do for the money, but so what? At least I'd be doing something that I loved. :h::h:
That's women for you.
Google says average starting salary of engineer is £23.5K
Google says average starting salary of a teacher is £22.2K
Its not that a big difference.
Original post by difeo
Isn't it common knowledge that the best paying subjects are engineering/medicine/maths/physics etc and these are all male dominated


Most medical students are women

From GMC:
"
The number of women joining UK medical schools continues to outnumber men our figures show that in 2012, 55% of medical students were female. However, the growth in the number of female medical students is slowing, from a peak of 61% in 2003.
"
Reply 13
Women are subconsciously 'nudged' towards low-paying, less time consuming, less intellectually challenging, 'feminine' welfare or caring type roles from an early age (playing hair and make-up, empty-headed youtube vloggers like Zoella, nurse or teacher barbies etc etc).

Men are similarly subconsciously pushed towards wanting high-paying high-achieving careers like science, engineering, finance etc.

Its just how our society functions at the moment. What it means is that there are plenty of people (both men and women, including myself) who find themselves stuck in a degree/ career path that is considered 'safe' and socially acceptable for their gender but they have no interest in.
Original post by CHEETS
high-paying like engineering,


I wish people would stop saying crap like this. The reason that engineering is so crap in the UK is because engineers are so poorly paid. Its really is shocking how little an engineer earns (about £23K at start to about £35K when miles older). What sort of "high-paying" are you on about?
Generally, women seem to put more importance on their emotions and 'passions' as opposed to looking at things from a strategic point of view.

I chose to apply for Law partially because of the money. I would have applied for Philosophy if career and money wasn't an issue, but it is. Law is more likely to prescribe me with a straight forward formula to enter a successful career, whereas Philosophy most likely won't provide me with that luxury.
It's better to do something you love.
Original post by TheArtofProtest
Because they make spontaneous decisions based on emotional decisions.

There was a girl who, despite hating physics, went onto do physics as an undergrad. Turns out that she only did it because she had a crush on a guy who was going to do physics at university. This guy had been in a relationship for 3 years. She failed her course. True story.

Spoiler



Well someone has watched legally blonde...
There are plenty of women going into veterinary medicine. At the moment, there are more female applicants than male ones, even though the older generation of vets tend to be men. Being a vet is reasonably well paid, not as well as medicine though. I think women and girls generally care more about helping people than earning a ton of money. Whether this is psychological or sociological, I don't know, but that seems to be true
Original post by fire_and_ice
Generally, women seem to put more importance on their emotions and 'passions' as opposed to looking at things from a strategic point of view.

I chose to apply for Law partially because of the money. I would have applied for Philosophy if career and money wasn't an issue, but it is. Law is more likely to prescribe me with a straight forward formula to enter a successful career, whereas Philosophy most likely won't provide me with that luxury.


I think, at degree level, women do take degrees that give large sums of money - eg Medicine is a prime example.

I don't think its the degree, its what happens AFTER the degree.

One truth is that "YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL IF YOU WANT TO GET RICH" ...
However, the sterotype of the "woman home builder" has a ring of truth. If you could get a low paying teaching job in Croydon (near your flat) or a massive pay rise if you went to Finland or Nigeria to teach (whatever it is) would you move to take the money? I Suspect more men than women would travel.

This advice was given to me by my PhD friend - He got his PhD because he was willing to travel from Birmingham (his home) to Newcastle to do research when other people were not.
(edited 7 years ago)

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