Is University of Phoenix the best place for women's brains?

There's a commercial which debuted with the new year for University of Phoenix. It's the one with the cover of "If I only had a brain", with images of working women studying when they can. In case you haven't seen it:


The song is a bit of an earworm, I find it floating through my brain at the oddest times. What compels me to write about it is how it fits into a larger narrative around surrounding women right now.

The first time I saw it, I was sure it was a commercial for a women's empowerment group. It's much artsier than what we're used to from a for-profit university, and the overall message is one of undervalued female workers going above and beyond to show their intelligence.

The ad was made by a company called 180LA, for whom this is a debut ad after they won the business from Phoenix' previous advertising agency. The stated purpose of the campaign is less to attract new students, but to retain the ones they have.

Enrollment at online universities like Phoenix happen on more of an ad hoc basis, so student retention is as important for them as subscriber retention is for Netflix. An ad like this fights the perception that Phoenix is just a degree mill, with images suggesting behind that name are these highly intelligent, hard working people.

It's a bold promise to make.

In the United States we're facing a demographic shift from marriage and homemaking as the norm for women and working only out of necessity, to young women staying single or unmarried longer and working out of preference.

Higher education rates tipped in favor of women in the 90s, and millennials have continued that trend. 38% of women aged 25 to 32 held a bachelor's degree (2013). That's seven percent higher than men in that same age group. Yet, millennial women still view men as the advantaged class in the workplace.

When I think about where a school like Phoenix fits in this puzzle, it scares me a little bit. The old adage "if everyone's special" is starting to apply with resumes. Yes, within the workforce there are ceilings one can hit without a specialized degree. This hits women who are returning to the workplace after divorce or children especially hard.

Is a degree mill going to give women the skills necessary to break through those ceilings? The data suggests high school dropouts fare better in the job market than graduates of for-profit Universities. Those who pursue credentials required by law for the jobs they want, for example nursing degrees, fare better. The catch there is the accrued student debt can be crippling.

There are setbacks which can affect both genders in their higher education goals: drug addiction, poverty, English as a second language to name a few. However pregnancy hits women fairly singularly. A female heavy add like Phoenix put out, with lyrics about taking care of children, seem to be talking directly to those women.