Alice Vol. 7 No. 5

The MRS.
“She’s just here to get her Mrs.
Degree,” is a quote overheard a little too
often as a junior in college. This comment
typically goes over everyone’s heads,
but can pierce the hearts of some college
women. Condescending in its nature, the
meaning behind a Mrs. degree is that a
woman is going to college to get a degree
that some would label as pointless in order
to find a partner to marry that will provide
for them with their degree that actually
means something.
It seems the root of these Mrs.
degrees are degrees with feminine
undertones or not under the S.T.E.M
(Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics) list. Creative majors and
others, such as social sciences, deal with
questions regarding their degree’s validity
and worth.
“I think business majors, not just
for females, but for any gender are cut
short,” said Reese McGee, The University
of Alabama junior and business major. “I
came into the business school expecting
it to be a piece-of-cake like how it is often
stereotyped, and instead was faced with
economics and accounting classes that
require a great deal of time and effort.”
Business majors get the reputation
for what some deem to be a less demanding
degree. People use a negative connotation
when citing instances of attending social
events and many other perceived benefits.
Despite the bad press, gaining a
business degree can allow an individual
to explore many paths, such as becoming
a CEO and managing or working on Wall
Street, the holy grail of the business world.
Many successful women have business
degrees to back them, such as comedian
and actress Wanda Sykes, who graduated
from Hampton University with a degree
in marketing and even worked for the
National Security Agency before diving
into entertainment. A few other names to
mention are Melinda Gates who is current
General Manager at Microsoft, Mary Barra
who is current CEO of General Motors and
Amy Hood, current Chief Financial Officer
of Microsoft.
According to mba.com, “87%
of female graduates say their return on
investment has been positive, and 84%
say their professional situation is better or
much better as a result of their business
school degree.”
Another commonly misunderstood
major is communications. The stereotypes
around this area of study are most likely
due to people’s lack of knowledge about
what the major entails. Communications
is a basis for most transactions in the
world. Successful women that have
studied communications are famous
talk-show hosts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen
DeGeneres.
“It’s much more than watching
‘Cocomellon’ like TikTok seems to say.
We learn case studies, analyze in real-time
what reactions are, how humans respond
to events and what their upbringing can
evolve into when they become adults,”
said Alice Helms, communications major
at the University of Alabama.
A key component of communications
is learning to read people and their
behaviors–a task not easily obtained.
“There are many organizations like
the FBI and CIA that rely so much on
communication in order to complete their
missions. Proper communication can be
the difference between multi-billion dollar
deals or interviews for a one-in-a-lifetime
job,” said Helmss
Dr. Barely of The University of
Alabama, a favorite of Helms, once said,
“If you want something done, give it to a
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