Thanks for linking that -- it was an interesting read, and presented the playing field very nicely.
As for the major question, while I agree with you that in an ideal world, a liberal arts degree shouldn't put you in that position, in the real world, statistically speaking, of course it will. All of the professions (and I include the sciences here) have their own training courses, their majors. If you spend four years training for one of those, you have a huge advantage over anyone who doesn't. What's left over are the service jobs -- comparitively speaking, no specific and detailed body of knowledge, but an array of general skills and soft skills. There are some jobs which directly apply knowledge in the field, but they pay is commensurate to their relative capatalistic importance as fields.
I would love to see a world where I thought this would change, but it will never happen. I think a best case solution would be for schools to start requiring a stronger liberal arts core for all degrees, which would definitely help all their graduates, but also perhaps make what are, to be blunt, dead end majors less tempting. That plus aggressive pre-college advising that lets women know what the value and the consequences of their choices are might start to make a difference. I understand the complaints of not wanting to go into the higher paying fields because the work environment isn't as enjoyable, but as more women enter those fields, the environment will change, eventually -- no other mechanism will ever accomplish this.
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As for the major question, while I agree with you that in an ideal world, a liberal arts degree shouldn't put you in that position, in the real world, statistically speaking, of course it will. All of the professions (and I include the sciences here) have their own training courses, their majors. If you spend four years training for one of those, you have a huge advantage over anyone who doesn't. What's left over are the service jobs -- comparitively speaking, no specific and detailed body of knowledge, but an array of general skills and soft skills. There are some jobs which directly apply knowledge in the field, but they pay is commensurate to their relative capatalistic importance as fields.
I would love to see a world where I thought this would change, but it will never happen. I think a best case solution would be for schools to start requiring a stronger liberal arts core for all degrees, which would definitely help all their graduates, but also perhaps make what are, to be blunt, dead end majors less tempting. That plus aggressive pre-college advising that lets women know what the value and the consequences of their choices are might start to make a difference. I understand the complaints of not wanting to go into the higher paying fields because the work environment isn't as enjoyable, but as more women enter those fields, the environment will change, eventually -- no other mechanism will ever accomplish this.