There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

Economic shock therapy is a term that describes sudden widescale transformation. In the case of Russia, shock therapy was the sudden shift from a communist economy, in which the government had totalitarian control over goods and service production, to a capitalist market. The transition came without social support in the hopes that it could quickly snap Russia into fiscal shape and make the country a modern player on the world stage. As expected, this adversely affected many people in the short term; however, even worse, the consequences were long-lasting. Russians suffered health crises, turning to drugs and alcohol to cope—a parallel reaction to one Hill witnessed in her hometown in England. As Russia moved to privatize industry and commerce in an attempt to fix the corrupt centralized government, jobs were no longer predictably available throughout the country. Hubs of industry decayed, driving talent into the flourishing urban areas: London in the UK, the coasts in the US, and Moscow in Russia. This severely limited the social mobility of Russian citizens who owned homes elsewhere. Conversely, the Russian government launched initiatives to prevent millions of people from flooding Moscow wasn’t sustainable, but this only worked to a degree.

In academia, as elsewhere in society, women faced inherent challenges. Hill discusses the way women are judged by their appearance and grooming—unlike men, who get more leeway. To be taken seriously, Hill knew she needed top-notch formal clothing—something she couldn’t afford. Another mentor stepped in: Dorothy Zinberg, an important scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, who understood all too well the difficulties of being a woman in academia. The suit Zinberg bought gave Hill the outward veneer she needed to continue her career in the United States. In Moscow, attitudes towards women were even more regressive: Women were expected to always look good and keep quiet. Hill recounts a 2011 meeting in Moscow when she was seated next to Putin. She couldn’t fathom why she’d have such a prominent seat, but was later told that it was strictly because of her appearance: She was just pretty enough to be a prop for Putin, decorative but not so beautiful she’d draw attention away from him. 

Hill’s gender has often been a barrier within politics and in academia. One such challenge was unequal pay. While the UK passed laws to outlaw salary discrepancies, in the US, Hill had to fight to be paid the same as male colleagues. One key difference between the two countries is the strange taboo around discussing salaries in the US—something that contributes to unfair compensation. Another difference is that in the US, salary is often based not on qualifications, but on gender and race: When women ask for raises, they are denied with a sense that they should feel themselves lucky to have a job at all.

Despite being a top scholar in her field with a proven track record, Hill learned that male colleagues with identical or lesser experience were earning far more. When Hill changed jobs, her previous salary anchored her new salary offers; when she tried to talk around it as men did, it didn’t work. When she finally seemed to have landed a job that offered fairer compensation, department turnover led to a new offer for far less money, again citing her salary at her previous positions.

Hill asserts that Millennials are the unluckiest generation in American history; arguing that they are even worse off than the Silent Generation, the cohort that came of age during the Great Depression and WWII. While education was the key to Hill’s social advancement, it no longer functions this way for Millennials: A college degree has become a requirement for entry-level jobs that once didn’t require a degree. As more and more people compete for the same number of opportunities, the qualifications necessary to succeed multiply. The position Hill once held at Harvard now has increasingly competitive requirements.

Worse yet, it has become nearly impossible to work to pay for school—the costs have gone up so much that students and their parents take out exorbitant loans that they cannot pay off. Hill argues that the hyper-competitive job market and the shackle of debt are major contributors to the discontent with American systems that has led to the rise of populism in the United States.