No one has asked Ms. Theologian a question in a while, so she’s going to take someone else’s: a job hunter wants to know if she can leave off her major in women’s studies from her resume (she has a double major in English and Gender and
Women’s Studies).
Um. Yes. Please. Feel free to leave off your major in Gender/Women’s Studies. In fact, I would highly advise it. And I like the fields, but those are all terms with a ton of baggage, and you don’t know what it’s going to trigger in someone who sees it.
Of course, we could say that you need to find a job in which a double major in English and Women’s studies would be applauded. But I am far more practical than that. You need a job. You are not lying if you leave something off. So leave it off.
You are in no way obligated to portray the totality of who you are as a human being on your resume. You need to tailor it to the job (despite what some folks say in comments).
May 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Pragmatism works best when looking for a job, don’t you think? It’s unfortunate that employers judge on first impressions, but that’s how it goes.
And if I saw someone with a women’s studies degree, I might be inclined to think “What skills could this person possibly bring to the position?”, not automatically something anti-feminist.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
There’s probably a lot of jobs that you could just leave off your major….