Fox News’ Jesse Watters singled out “highly educated” women in a bizarre rant about the rise of democratic socialist candidates this week, arguing that those who pursue such “fancy degrees” risk “killing” their love lives in the process.
On Wednesday’s installment of Fox’s “The Five,” Watters said men do not prioritize a Ph.D. in a prospective partner, and as such, women who obtain them remain single while becoming “resentful” and “ugly.”
“If you’re going to take out a loan to get a degree in the humanities or the social sciences, what are you thinking?” he said. “You’re going to be 28 years old, and you’re going to have no skills and no experience, and you’re not going to take an entry-level offer because you think you have this big fancy degree, that you’re worth more, and you don’t want to take that entry-level salary because you can’t afford to.”
Watters, a father of three daughters, also claimed that most of the people he knew with such degrees had wealthy families who covered their tuition. As for those who didn’t ― particularly women ― many ended up moving back in with their parents, a move that had a major impact on their personal lives.
“You’re going to get bitter because you’re single, and if you’re a woman, men don’t care if you have a Ph.D. That is not high on our list of attributes,” he said. “And if you’re a woman and you’re looking at a guy who can’t provide resources, you’re not really in the market. So you’re going to get angry and then you’re going to get ugly, and you’re going to have a bad attitude. No one wants to hire anybody with a bad attitude. No one wants to date anybody with a bad attitude.”
Noting that those women would be better served by finding love, as building a life is “a lot easier to do that with someone else with another income,” Watters said his advice was the opposite of what the Democratic Party was “preaching” to its voters.
“They preach you are a victim and you are owed something and you’re entitled to something, and it’s not your fault that you can’t take care of yourself,” he explained. “So this party is here to give you things and to punish other people who have made it.”
Not surprisingly, Watters’ remarks drew a fair amount of pushback online, with many blasting his take as sexist and misogynistic.
“Smart, educated, middle aged women with bad attitudes get married every day,” one person wrote on X.
Added another: “What a shallow statement that screams he was rejected by intelligent women.”
As many online have pointed out, Watters’ comments come just days after he drew similar criticism for a tasteless joke about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial proposal to require testosterone testing for U.S. service members over age 30.
“Women on base, you guys better be careful,” he said on Fox News last week. “Port calls, women in Asia, you better be careful, because these guys are gonna be wild animals, and you better watch out.”
Many interpreted Watters’ joke to be making light of sexual assault ― hardly a laughing matter, especially given that the Defense Department’s 2024 report on sexual assault in the military found there were 6,973 reports of sexual assault from service members that occurred during military service.
In addition, the report found that 6.8% of active-duty female service members and 1.3% of active-duty male service members experienced at least one instance of unwanted sexual contact in 2023.