After reading Sarah Smith’s Article, “Husband-Hunting in College”, I became curious as to how many of our collegiette classmates are actually in school for their MRS degree. So, I launched a nation-wide poll to our fellow collegiettes to ask what they see in their futures.
About 56% of heterosexual survey-takers say they will certainly marry. About 41% say they probably will marry, and the rest gave no prediction.
None of the straight survey-takers suggested that they may never marry! Lesbians and bisexuals most frequently answered “probably.” About 48% of women who think they may marry expect to do so between the ages of 25 and 28. The next leading age range was 28-30 with 30% of polltakers. How would you define an MRS degree? Only about 12% of women expect to be married before the age of 25 (well after the typical age for graduation,) and 71% of that group expect to pursue full-time careers, even after becoming mothers! One hundred percent of women who expect to marry before 25 responded that they will “certainly” become parents.
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So, how prevalent is the “MRS” degree that Sarah Smith warns us about? Has the trend truly run its course, as Smith says? Only about 1.85% of all survey-takers expect to take work off entirely when they marry, with another 7.4% expecting to take off when they have children. It certainly doesn’t seem to be a prevalent trend, at least among our classmates today, to go to college for husband hunting. Is this something to breathe a sigh of relief over? Shall the feminists rejoice? Can we all join hands and bask in the glory of women’s liberation? Maybe…or maybe not. Let’s pause for a moment to examine the third-order effects of this growing trend.
My mom was a stay-at-home mom. She taught until she gave birth to my older brother, and from then on worked inside the home. She raised three kids and did a darn fine job of it. I’m all for women in the workforce and the independence of my fellow collegiettes, but I don’t see a thing wrong with the way my mom lived her life, and neither does she. “I don’t regret a day,” she said when I asked her. So many women would shake their heads in scorn at my oh-so-traditional mother, frowning at her as she home-schools her kids and masters the art of cake decorating. “She’s perpetuating the archaic stereotypes of old,” they whisper. “Being a mom is all fine and good, but what about her career? Doesn’t she have dreams? Ambitions?” Of course she does, and always has. They didn’t always have to do with her family, either. “I wanted to be a singer,” she told me. She’s far too humble to say it out loud, but she could have rocked MTV… back when it actually played music.
I encourage every single one of my fellow collegiettes to stick it through till “Pomp and Circumstance” plays through the Reed Green Coliseum at graduation, and I encourage all of you to have a way of taking care of yourself. With that being said, don’t be afraid to hold traditional (if unpopular) values. Are you looking for a husband? Do you want to stay home with your kids instead of letting them be raised by a day care service? You’re not alone. About 40% of survey-takers are unsure about daycare services, while another 15% certainly have no intention of leaving their children in one. Do you see a problem there? Only 7.4% of women intend to leave work, but 15% intend to absolutely boycott daycares.
None of us truly know where we’ll be in ten years. If you have a plan for the rest of your life, you’re going to have to change it a few hundred times. That is completely okay; what’s the fun of life if you know the end of the story? I encourage you to follow your dreams, but I caution you to follow your heart. If you do fall in love and get married, don’t feel like you’re letting our founding mothers down. In a new era of women entering the workforce in droves, there’s a lot of pressure to revile the “MRS” degree. Don’t worry about it. Maybe you can put it on your résumé, right under the last name of that cute guy from your English class.
Sources:
http://www.hercampus.com/career/husband-hunting-college-getting-your-mrs-degree
https://atrial.qualtrics.com/CP/Report.php?RP=RP_4ZderYSe53DpK2U