Brought to you by UAGC:
The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down for many — but women, in particular, were hit hard. More than half of all pandemic-related job loss in the United States were suffered by female workers, who in addition to typically maintaining positions in the fields first to be furloughed, also bore the brunt of home and childcare responsibilities during the months of school and daycare closures. As vaccination efforts advance, more and more job opportunities are returning, but many women remain out of work.
Fortunately, increased unemployment wasn’t the only development during the 12-plus months of quarantine. Though online education opportunities have been increasing for the past two decades, school closures have driven the development of more advanced online programs at every level. This is particularly good news for women, who reap the following noteworthy benefits from online education:
Flexibility and Convenience
Traditional higher education requires students to travel to campus for strictly organized courses, but online education offers a much greater amount of flexibility in terms of schedule. Though some classes do occur during particular time slots, many involve pre-recorded lectures and participation with classmates through online forums. As a result, individual students experience greater convenience, fitting their coursework into their existing schedules.
This is incredibly advantageous for women, who tend to have much more numerous responsibilities than men. Women bare the brunt of home care tasks, to include caring for children or elderly family members, cleaning, cooking, and shopping for the household.
Thus, it is important for most women that their education doesn’t entirely disrupt their responsibilities at home. The ability to remain in the home and complete coursework when time allows, as offered by exclusively online degree programs, is invaluable.
Often explained as a downside of online education, online classes provide students with more autonomy, which means they endure more responsibility to motivate themselves to watch lectures, interact with course materials, and complete assignments. In all-online programs, students are often multitasking, reviewing material for one class while completing a project for another.
The idea that women are natural-born multitaskers has been debunked by science; instead, women seem to be better at multitasking simply because they work harder and longer than men do.
The cultural expectation that women be able to juggle several disparate responsibilities has trained many women to thrive in an online academic environment. Because women instinctively complete work in a timelier manner, they often find the autonomy of online degree programs advantageous.
Typically, tuition for an online degree program isn’t that much different from tuition for an on-campus program; after all, students are buying access to the same knowledge from the same professors. Still, online education offers many other noteworthy cost-cutting opportunities, such as:
- No need to relocate to student housing or accommodations near campus
- No need to commute to campus, paying for parking passes or public transit
- No need to pay extra for food or drinks while on campus
- Often, no need to pay for expensive textbooks or lab supplies
Estimates suggest that online students save between $12 and $66 per credit hour. Because women tend to have less access to financial resources — especially in the midst of the pandemic, in which so many women have been furloughed or fired — women stand to benefit more from the reduced expenses of online education.
Expanded Career Opportunities
Most career paths nowadays require at least a bachelor’s degree for an entry-level position, and an increasing number of positions expect job candidates to have a master’s degree or other advanced credentials. This is especially true for female job applicants, who experience more stigma from hiring managers and often must accept lower pay when they lack advanced qualifications.
Online education gives women access to degrees and credentials that they might otherwise never pursue — and even better, women can gain these degrees and credentials from top-tier schools, like the University of Arizona Global Campus. This can greatly expand a woman’s career opportunities and earning potential, ensuring enhanced wealth and wellbeing for her and her family going forward.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced many career-oriented women to take a major step backwards, but online education presents a way forward into future career success. With more developed online resources, schools are welcoming female students who need a career boost after a dreadful year of unemployment.