Marriage and the MRS degree

In 1968 when Sul’s ‘Sex and Sociability’ survey was published approximately 80% of University of Bath students were male. Readers are invited to indicate their gender and answer a series of ten intimate, yes or no questions. What struck me the most when reading this was not the highly inappropriate language allowed to be printed, but the following blatantly insulting questions obviously directed at female students. They are asked:

Do you think university life increases your marriage prospects?

Have you come to university in the hope of meeting a prospective husband?

Throughout time, female students have not been able to attend university without being underestimated, undermined and interrogated on their reasons for being there. Whilst thinking about this piece, I was reminded of a video that I had seen of the late Charlie Kirk. At Turning Point USA’s Women’s Leadership Summit, he told a 14-year-old girl with aspirations in political journalism to use college as a chance to find a husband and pursue an ‘MRS degree’, an outdated and sarcastic term adopted decades ago to belittle women in higher education, suggesting that they should enrol with the intention of pursuing a husband rather than academic achievement. Charlie Kirk used this term in 2025. On multiple occasions he had addressed young women, urging them to stop ‘lying’ to themselves and admit that they are only in college to seek marriage, mocking their dreams and career aspirations. He even posted a YouTube video on his channel, subscribed to by over 5 million, entitled ‘I Double Down on MRS Degrees & No One Can Stop Me’, which unfortunately has over 22,000 views.

The misogynistic idea that a women’s end goal and sole purpose in life is marriage and reproduction referenced in the Sul survey persists today, and as a woman striving for a career in academia, I am deeply saddened to see this judgment placed on women in higher education.