Why do girls go for poorly paid degrees?

Original post by Changing Skies

I sometimes watch her stuff. It's completely possible to love makeup but also love science :lol:

Posted from TSR Mobile

So do I tbh, and yes it's true, totally possible.

Reply 41

Original post by joecphillips

Nice way to blame others for your decisions

Not true at all. You decisions are determined by the conditioning you receive at young age. And attitudes that women simply can't do science absolutely do exist. remember Tim Hunt, the influential Nobel Laureate who seemed to think that women in science labs fall in love with you and cry or something. Its impossible for little girls' decision-making abilities NOT to be influenced by this crap that's being thrust on them from all directions.

Reply 42

richpanda

16

This is why:

Women aren't as highly driven as men (career-wise). There are obviously plenty of exceptions to this, but I'm sure even the most ardent feminists must admit this. And furthermore, plenty of career-obsessive women end with mental health problems (this is from statistics and anecdotal evidence).

I already sort of feel like a career obsessed man. Right now to me the only thing that really matters is my work and results. Whereas most of the girls I know are like:

'omg just get me out of sixth form wanna go travelling so baddd'

Reply 43

Original post by FredOrJohn

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?

It's worse paid than other male-dominated jobs: finance, law etc

It's still better paid than many all female dominated roles: nursing, primary school teaching, fine arts

As a group, male-dominated roles are, on average, better paid, and engineering falls into this category, even if it is at the lower end.

Reply 44

SA-1

16

Original post by FredOrJohn

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.

Google says on average, teachers will earn £30k after 10 years of experience
Google says on average, engineers will earn £60k+ after 10 years of experience

Thoughts.

Reply 45

indigofox

12

Original post by karl pilkington

a lot of them would be better off not bothering with university altogether and going straight into domestic servitude lmao

If all they are going to do is look pretty, paint theirs nails and smile on Facebook yes they may as well. Real success requires hard work and driven women/men not fragile submissive baby makers. Everyone who is able should get up early and run 5k every morning to toughen up.

Reply 46

sachinisgod

21

Original post by Ladymusiclover

It's better to do something you love.

even if that means stacking shelves after graduation because employers think that degree is useless?

If you want to do a degree for emotional reasons rather than actually giving something back the country by atleast being employable after graduation ( so you can pay tax), then you should pay the £9000 per year tution fee yourself without getting sponsored by a government loan scheme.

Reply 47

tazarooni89

Because men and women tend to have different priorities in life, and their "status" tends to be measured by different factors.

It's kind of like asking "Why don't men seem to care so much about their looks?"

Reply 48

HOLA255

7

Original post by Erebor

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).

Men study Healthcare too.

Reply 49

indigofox

12

Original post by tazarooni89

Because men and women tend to have different priorities in life, and their "status" tends to be measured by different factors.

It's kind of like asking "Why don't men seem to care so much about their looks?"

Women are judged more on looks but you can work on your looks/body and also work for success. Just like career men often take care of their looks too. Plus when women get older and looks fade it helps to have something other than 'she has a nice body' to fall back on and form their identity. With society measuring a mans sucess on his career (which apparantly happens in general) I can understand having that as a main goal all your life but I cant understand women's main goals in life being to look good. Simply because looks fade, a career doesnt. So it makes sense to work on both to maintain status/respect in society.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 50

picklescamp

16

Original post by TheGuyReturns

Because the vast majority of girls, deep down still expect to get into an LTR / marry a guy who is decently paid.

well that's just absolute ******** :lol:

pretty sure that girls, like guys, do the subject they're interested. In my experience men seem to have more of an interest in science or maths whereas far more girls do humanities (judging from the gender balances of the classes I and my friends take at school.) I feel like regardless of gender people pursue a degree which interests them, be that philosophy or compsci. I would rather be paid less doing a job that I love than be paid more to do a job that bores me or that I hate.
However, the degree I hope to be doing next year has highly paid employment prospects (avg. £22,000 salary 6 months after graduation) so I don't exactly fit this trend.

Reply 51

tazarooni89

Original post by indigofox

Women are judged more on looks but you can work on your looks/body and also work for success. Just like career men often take care of their looks too. Plus when women get older and looks fade it helps to have something other than 'she has a nice body' to fall back on and form their identity. With society measuring a mans sucess on his career (which apparantly happens in general) I can understand having that as a main goal all your life but I cant understand women's main goals in life being to look good. Simply because looks fade, a career doesnt. So it makes sense to work on both to maintain status/respect in society.

I think everybody's "main" goals in life will depend on them, and people have multiple goals too. Women care about their careers, driving nice cars and having lots of money too. Men care about looking good, wearing nice clothes and being socially popular as well.

But I think society emphasises different goals to different extents depending on your gender (mostly because of the natural differences between the genders), so I'm not really surprised if they turn out to have a different mix of priorities.

Reply 52

Erebor

OP

2

Original post by tazarooni89

I think everybody's "main" goals in life will depend on them, and people have multiple goals too. Women care about their careers, driving nice cars and having lots of money too. Men care about looking good, wearing nice clothes and being socially popular as well.

But I think society emphasises different goals to different extents depending on your gender (mostly because of the natural differences between the genders), so I'm not really surprised if they turn out to have a different mix of priorities.

Right, society only emphasizes the already natural gender ''roles''.

Reply 53

Erebor

OP

2

Original post by CHEETS

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.

I started a new thread on this. More gender equal societies (where women are free to choose lifestyle/degree/job) have very skewed outcomes. My home country is a perfect example of the opposite.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4051577

Reply 54

Bethaaaaany

14

I still think there's a traditional mindset ingrained into us as children, that the man is the breadwinner and thus should be more concerned with financial opportunity, whereas women often will work part-time or be SAHMs. Whilst I disagree to an extent as my mum is a single parent and so is the main breadwinner, I am still going to study Nursing which is a low paid profession. However I also don't have a very money-orientated mindset through growing up working class, so perhaps the reason. I've also never been at all interested in the "money making" careers like finance or engineering, and won't force myself to do something I know I won't enjoy. I don't know, it's definitely an interesting question.

Reply 55

saladays

10

I love all these "Why do girls..." questions, like every girl is this weird, extraterrestrial creature and each acts in the same strange ways as the other :-)

Not all girls do this. I'd agree that women do tend to lean over to the arts, though. But why is that such a bad job? I'll be studying English soon. I'm confident in my ability and my future.

If anyone works hard enough they can have the job they want. You can have anything you want. You just have to be willing to work for it. I'm very motivated and I think I'll succeed in my career path, but it's up to me and only me to work hard and make sure it happens.

No choices are better than others, they're all down to preference. Why not do something you love? You're often better and more passionate in it, and so you are more likely to succeed in it :-)

Reply 56

Melancholy

If you put a male lion and a female lioness in an office building, the male lion would be thinking he wants to crush his opposition, collect as much money, and let his testosterone flow through his enormous muscley body, and roar. The lioness would probably not do this. She might show interest in the male lion but maybe not. She wants feeding and wants some nice cubs, but she might not be so driven. There are exceptions. The lion might want a piece of the lioness, sexually, I dunno. The lion would probably wear a tie.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 57

Joep95

19

Original post by CHEETS

Not true at all. You decisions are determined by the conditioning you receive at young age. And attitudes that women simply can't do science absolutely do exist. remember Tim Hunt, the influential Nobel Laureate who seemed to think that women in science labs fall in love with you and cry or something. Its impossible for little girls' decision-making abilities NOT to be influenced by this crap that's being thrust on them from all directions.

So we should let all murderers and rapists walk free as it is society who has conditioned them to commit those acts and it isn't their fault.

If what you are saying was true then there would be no parliament in this country as people at one point were happy being run by the monarchy.

Women would have no rights as society once deemed them lesser than men.

There are countless other things in history that would never of happened if your decision were made on conditioning in society.

Reply 58

Original post by joecphillips

So we should let all murderers and rapists walk free as it is society who has conditioned them to commit those acts and it isn't their fault.

If what you are saying was true then there would be no parliament in this country as people at one point were happy being run by the monarchy.

Women would have no rights as society once deemed them lesser than men.

There are countless other things in history that would never of happened if your decision were made on conditioning in society.

What? Who conditions serial killers into thinking that murder is good. Who said free will doesn't exist?

It's just a fact that women are nudged towards 'traditionally female' roles and men are nudged into 'breadwinner' roles by society. Its fairly well documented phenomenon.

Reply 59

The_Internet