Is JMU Preparing Everyone for Post-Grad, or Just Male-Dominated Fields? 

I remember coming to JMU for the first time and falling in love with it. One of the statistics that stuck out with me was back in 2019 JMU ranked No. 1 for graduate employment among all Virginia universities. This fact made me eager to come to JMU and alleviated some of my stress about the path that I would be on once I graduated. While I am not sure if that statistic remains true, as a graduating senior I am feeling incredibly underprepared for life after I walk across the stage in May. 

Graduating from college and not knowing what you want to do is quite daunting. As someone grappling with the worries of what I will do post-grad, I took initiative and visited the Career Center where they told me to attend the Career Fair. So, on Tuesday, February 27th,  I attended the Career Fair, but left feeling hopeless and disappointed in JMU. 

To provide some context, my major is in the humanities field and so is my friend who I went to the fair with. After walking around for about fifteen minutes we both realized that there really were no jobs being advertised that applied to our areas of interest. Most were for a sales type of job or technology based. We attempted to talk to one employer, however they did not seem interested in us after saying our majors. 

We were hopeful when we first checked in, because there appeared to be some companies promoting jobs we could pursue on the list of the employers. This list was color coded by major/industry. See the list below. 

As seen above, there were an overwhelming number of opportunities for those in Business, and for the companies that were advertising for other disciplines, most were only offering sales positions. 

I wondered why JMU was advertising this Career Fair so much, when really this was a career fair for people in business or technology. I then realized that the fields that were represented the most were male-dominated. As I looked around the room at the Career Fair, I noticed that most of the people behind the booths were mostly male-presenting individuals. 

Later that day, I had asked my friend who is a Marketing major what she thought of the career fair, and she talked about all of the awesome opportunities that they had for her there. I further learned about all of the things the College of Business (COB) does to prepare their students for jobs post-grad. They have companies come talk to them in classes about opportunities, classes dedicated to finding internships and working on resumés, and they are taught how to use LinkedIn, etc. Another thing I noticed was that all of these helpful tools were requirements for students in COB, and they did not have to go looking for them like I did via the Career Center. 

I’ve also noticed that the College of Integrated Science and Engineering (CISE) will put on a career fair catered to the disciplines in that college, which is also male-dominated. 

As a student who is in the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) here at JMU, I could not help but feel robbed of some of these opportunities, since I feel as though my college should also be able to provide me with resources to succeed post-grad. 

Many of these jobs that are at career fairs like JMU’s are in male-dominated fields, and women in them are the exception rather than the rule. The opportunity to have a good paying job should be available no matter the field in which you choose to go and work in. For example, I believe that teachers should get paid just as much as any CEO, as they are shaping the future of our world every day in their classrooms. Yet being a teacher is undesirable because of how little they get paid. It is also important to note that they are in a female-dominated field which historically has been underpaid and under-appreciated. It makes me wonder if education was male-dominated, and the effects of the patriarchy would come into play, would teachers get paid what they truly deserve?

So why are male-dominated fields so easily getting resources thrown at them to succeed, while it is so much harder for those like myself in more female-dominated spaces, especially if one is paying the same amount to go to JMU as individuals in other colleges? 

The answer is simple: patriarchy. Our society is built in a way in which men have the privilege to almost always succeed. Even if women are able to be to be in a space to succeed, they are easily susceptible to the gender pay gap, sexual harassment, and they have to work extra to prove themselves just because of their gender.

This is seen first hand at JMU as students in male-dominated fields have more resources at their hands. When individuals seek out resources like I did with the Career Center, they are not equipped enough to help, as all they did was send me to this Career Fair where I was clearly let down. This leaves a large part of the student population with limited resources to succeed, most of whom are female-presenting. 

As someone who is still worried about finding work post-grad and taking advantage of opportunities that I had to seek out, I feel as though I am already at a disadvantage to succeed based solely on my major. Resources need to be resourceful for any student, and I believe that while the Career Center has some great ways to help students, they do leave a large gendered population in the dark.