Center for Women’s & Gender Studies

Starting Feb. 7, graduate students will have the opportunity to tell UT administrators more of what they want from the University.
A survey created by sociology professor Chandra Muller and a team of three graduate students will examine how graduate students view their academic training, quality of life, department environment, work-family balance, mentoring and advising. Although other universities such as the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley have conducted broad surveys of graduate students, Muller said UT’s study, the first of its kind at the University, is broader in scope. It fully encompasses both academic and external aspects of graduate-student life and can be used for all disciplines and schools.
Muller’s team modeled the survey after a 2008 gender-equity forum held for faculty and staff that sought information about discrepancies in pay, hiring, promotion and governance.
As was the case with the faculty forum, the team hopes to use the results of the graduate-student study as a springboard from which to submit policy recommendations to the administration.
“We know pressingly little about graduate education in terms of what works and what doesn’t,” Muller said. “We’re hoping to inform the University administration about how to improve life here for graduate students and make it so they can be more successful in their pursuits.”
Sociology graduate student Anna Mueller, one member of Muller’s team, said she believes the survey accurately evaluates the key aspects of graduate-student life in a comprehensive manner. While creating the survey, the team consulted with students from all of UT’s graduate departments to help form a wide range of questions. As a result, the survey will be vital in informing the administration about what graduate students are looking for in their programs, Mueller said.
“I’m excited that instead of just submitting complaints or talking about problems within departments, the survey will be able to pick up the more macro-level problems at UT,” she said.
Daniel Spikes, Graduate Student Assembly president and educational administration graduate student, said he hopes the survey will serve as a new link between students and the administration. In an effort to increase participation in the survey, Spikes said the assembly has been working to encourage students to respond once the survey comes out by sending them informative e-mails.
“This survey shows the University is really interested in hearing what we have to say about what helps us to be successful and improves our experience,” Spikes said. “I think students will be encouraged and empowered to give their voice. For those who are not, it’s our responsibility as the GSA to show those students that their input is valuable.”
Graduate sociology professor Kelly Raley was a key member in the execution of the gender-equity forum. She said she expects certain features of the graduate-student study, including anonymity and the broadness of the questions, will provide useful data.
“One advantage of an anonymous survey is that students can more honestly report the barriers they experience in their education than they might report to their advisers,” Raley said. “If a female graduate student is really concerned about how her family life may shape her career, she may not tell her adviser that because her adviser is more invested in her career prospects than her personal life. But having an anonymous survey can help us collect whether family life is or is not a concern.”
Muller said that because her team is composed almost entirely of graduate students, its results will be more significant than those of a survey produced by an outside firm, and the survey itself will be more cost-effective.
“This has been fueled almost entirely by graduate-student work, and I think that gives it more credibility,” Muller said. “They have a lot of ownership. I’ve been helping and making sure it’s a sound study, but this is graduate-student-driven. We’re not an outside firm that’s super costly. We’re committed to this for the purpose of improving graduate education, not for making money.”
Surveys will be delivered to the roughly 12,000 graduate and law students via e-mail.
Students will have until at least the start of spring break to respond to the surveys. There are no immediate plans to expand the survey to include undergraduate students, Muller said.

“Sex is a right,” one woman in the audience asserted, immediately qualifying her statement, “It’s in the Qur’an.” The room was tense with impassioned Arab women, each politely struggling to be patient while anxious syllables escaped their throats. “We should be able to discuss sex without talking about religion,” another woman remarked.

The 3^rd Annual New Arab Woman Forum (NAWF) invited women from across the Middle East and North Africa to discuss the role Arab women play in politics, society, media, and education. However, the conversation always found its way back to one subject—sex. At $300 per ticket, the conference attracted an exclusive crowd of over 600 women; more notable, perhaps, were those excluded from the conference. While poverty was discussed at the forum, I do not suppose there were many poor people in attendance. A colorful version of the truth landed me an invitation as a member of the American press reporting for the University of Texas Center for Women’s and Gender Studies.

I met women from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Sudan, Bahrain, and even some European countries. However, most of the attendees were local Lebanese women. Many Americans might assume that all Arab women don a burka, wear hijab, or at least dress conservatively; to the contrary, women in Beirut are famous for their flashy fashion. Although the awkward mingling that takes place at such events later substantiated the fact that most of the attendees were Lebanese, initial clues lied in the perfect hair, doll-like make-up, stylish heels, tight skirts, and shades of red, pink, and orange nail polish that made the event look more like a fashion show than a conference. The subtleties of perfection reiterated that Lebanese beauty was not a one-day affair; instead, I got the impression of pre-prom preparation. Every detail was taken into consideration from head to toe. Of course, these observations do not address all Lebanese women, but they describe a trend that was undeniably apparent at the conference.

Lebanese women are often thought to be the most beautiful of Arab women, but this focus on beauty, which is common throughout the Arab world, leads to internal (personal) and external (societal) conflict that dominated much of the discussion at NAWF.  “Why do we compete so viciously to be beautiful?” asked panelist Fawziya Salama, Egyptian journalist and TV persona.  “To attract men? And then do what with them?” Salama described the way men in the streets make comments to women as they pass by or “birmoo kilma,” which literally translates into “ they throw a word.”  It is an impersonal exchange supported by men’s control of public spaces, and something I have become very familiar with living in Jordan. To deter this behavior, many people often repeat a common adage, “If a man makes perverse comments to women on the streets, other men will make similar comments to his sister or mother.” Salama explained such a proverb takes a male-centric approach towards what could arguably be considered sexual harassment, “this saying ignores the way women are affected by objectionable comments and focuses instead on how men feel.”

The conversation continued on into the lunch break. The consensus at my table seemed to be that sexualized images of Arab women in the media are contributing to the sexual mis-education of Arab youth. “Our culture is a culture of silence when it comes to sex,” one woman told me. “The next generation is being bombarded with sexual images and there is no one to guide them, answer questions, or even address health concerns and STDs.” Globalization is forcing the Middle East to confront and address issues related to sex and sexuality that have been traditionally contained by cultural and religious conservatism.

As NAWF came to an end, I overheard two women express their disappointment stating that nothing was accomplished at the forum. However, the conference itself was an accomplishment. I was reminded of the role that consciousness raising plays in the struggle for equality and self-actualization. I appreciated the insight the speakers had to offer, but the biggest thrill came from members of the audience. Many of these women were more than passionate; they were angry. Some women spoke with tears in their eyes, others screamed, a few even fought, and one woman spoke for way, way too long. The women in the audience were so eager to speak and to be heard in a public space with an audience of influential people.

(A special thanks to Alamo Heights Rotary Club and Rotary District 5840 for making my experience abroad possible.)

Stop Asking Me My Major By Scott Keyes

One of my best friends from high school, Andrew, changed majors during his first semester at college. He and I had been fascinated by politics for years, sharing every news story we could find and participating in the Internet activism that was exploding into a new political force. Even though he was still passionate about politics, that was no longer enough. “I have to get practical,” he messaged me one day, “think about getting a job after graduation. I mean, it’s like my mom keeps asking me: What can you do with a degree in political science anyway?”

I heard the same question from my friend Jesse when students across campus were agonizing about which major was right for them. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to study, but every time a field sparked his interest, his father would pepper him with questions about what jobs were available for people in that discipline. Before long, Jesse’s dad had convinced him that the only way he could get a job and be successful after college was to major in pre-med.

My friends’ experiences were not atypical.

Choosing a major is one of the most difficult things students face in college. There are two main factors that most students consider when making this decision. First is their desire to study what interests them. Second is the fear that a particular major will render them penniless after graduation and result in that dreaded postcollege possibility: moving back in with their parents.

All too often, the concern about a major’s practical prospects are pushed upon students by well-intentioned parents. If our goal is to cultivate students who are happy and successful, both in college as well as in the job market, I have this piece of advice for parents: Stop asking, “What can you do with a degree in (fill in the blank)?” You’re doing your children no favors by asking them to focus on the job prospects of different academic disciplines, rather than studying what interests them.

It is my experience, both through picking a major myself and witnessing many others endure the process, that there are three reasons why parents (and everyone else) should be encouraging students to focus on what they enjoy studying most, rather than questioning what jobs are supposedly available for different academic concentrations.

The first is psychological. For his first two years of college, Jesse followed his dad’s wishes and remained a pre-med student. The only problem was that he hated it. With no passion for the subject, his grades slipped, hindering his chances of getting into medical school. As a result his employability, the supposed reason he was studying medicine in the first place, suffered.

The second reason to stop asking students what they can do with a major is that it perpetuates the false notion that certain majors don’t prepare students for the workplace. The belief that technical majors such as computer science are more likely to lead to a job than a major such as sociology or English is certainly understandable. It’s also questionable. “The problem,” as my friend José explained to me, “is that even as a computer-science major, what I learned in the classroom was outdated by the time I hit the job market.” He thought instead that the main benefit of his education, rather than learning specific skills, was gaining a better way of thinking about the challenges he faced. “What’s more,” he told me, “no amount of education could match the specific on-the-job training I’ve received working different positions.”

Finally, it is counterproductive to demand that students justify their choice of study with potential job prospects because that ignores the lesson we were all taught in kindergarten (and shouldn’t ignore the closer we get to employment): You can grow up to be whatever you want to be. The jobs people work at often fall within the realm of their studies, but they don’t have to. One need look no further than some of the most prominent figures in our society to see illustrations. The TV chef Julia Child studied English in college. Author Michael Lewis, whose best sellers focus on sports and the financial industry, majored in art history. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, got his degree in philosophy, as did the former Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina. Jeff Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, focused on mathematics. Indeed, with the Department of Labor estimating that on average people switch careers (not just jobs) two or three times in their lives, relying on a college major as career preparation is misguided.

I’m not saying any applicant can get any job. Job seekers still need marketable skills if they hope to be hired. However, in a rapidly changing economy, which majors lead to what jobs is not so clear cut. Many employers look for applicants from a diverse background—including my friend who has a degree in biochemistry but was just hired at an investment consulting firm.

That doesn’t mean that majors no longer matter. It is still an important decision, and students are right to seek outside counsel when figuring out what they want to study. But questioning how a particular major will affect their employability is not necessarily the best approach. Although parents’ intentions may be pure—after all, who doesn’t want to see their children succeed after graduation?—that question can hold tremendous power over impressionable freshmen. Far too many of my classmates let it steer them away from what they enjoyed studying to a major they believed would help them get a job after graduation.

One of those friends was Andrew. He opted against pursuing a degree in political science, choosing instead to study finance because “that’s where the jobs are.” Following graduation, Andrew landed at a consulting firm. I recently learned with little surprise that he hates his job and has no passion for the work.

Jesse, on the other hand, realized that if he stayed on the pre-med track, he would burn out before ever getting his degree. During his junior year he changed tracks and began to study engineering. Not only did Jesse’s grades improve markedly, but his enthusiasm for the subject recently earned him a lucrative job offer and admission to a top engineering master’s program.

Andrew and Jesse both got jobs. But who do you think feels more successful?

Scott Keyes is a 2009 graduate of Stanford University, where he majored in political science.

Jessie Beal, BA in Women’s & Gender Studies 2009, was just elected to the

National Honor Society:   Phi Beta Kappa.