“I’m Doing This for Me:” Gendered Reasons for Enrolling in Postsecondary Education During a Time of Economic Uncertainty

ABSTRACT

This study examines the gendered experiences of working class, nontraditional postsecondary students in the context of the Great Recession. Based on in-depth interviews with 75 students, and a longitudinal analysis of their academic transcripts 6 to 8 years later, we find that both men and women emphasized the importance of providing for their families. In the context of an economic downturn, interviewees were concerned about improving their job prospects with educational credentials to ensure greater financial stability. Yet whereas men focused primarily on financially providing for their families as their reason for enrolling in college, women emphasized both providing for their families and self-development. This blending of the perceived purposes of education suggests that women expressed a more complex, multifaceted understanding of their reasons for enrolling in education. This study has implications for not only the Great Recession but motivations for enrolling during other recessions, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Working-class
• students
• postsecondary
• gender
• recession

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ronald Aronson, as well as the project’s research assistants, whose help was invaluable: Ashleigh Hodge, Sumeyya Rehman, and Cynthia Douglas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ The term “working class” is often used to describe students’ family backgrounds. We use “working class” throughout the paper as an umbrella term that merges a student’s family background with their current class position, as older students are less reliant on their parents’ finances when attending college. For a full understanding of the diverse definitions of the term “working class” and its evolution over time, see Fazio, Launius, and Strangleman (2021).

² In 2016, 71 percent of all college students were nontraditional (USGAO U.S. Government Accountability Office 2019), which the U.S. Department of Education defines as having one or more of the following characteristics: financial independence from parents, one or more dependents, single caregiver, lacking a traditional high school diploma, delayed college enrollment, enrolled part time, or employed full time during the academic year.

³ We included four nontraditional students who were in our sample but did not meet our definition of working class. Due to the small number in this category, we are unable to make comparisons across social class.

Additional information

Funding

This project has been funded by the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Notes on contributors

Pamela Aronson

Pamela Aronson is professor of sociology and an affiliate faculty of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Her research has focused on the transition to adulthood and the college experience for disadvantaged students. She has examined young women’s experiences of work and family, gender differences in career development and confidence in college, completing college during the Great Recession, the college experience for Middle Eastern immigrants, the factors that predict resilience and success in college, and attitudes toward feminism. She has over 30 publications in such places as Gender & Society, Journal of Youth Studies, Social Forces, Critical Sociology, International Journal of Psychology, Emerging Adulthood, and Advances in Life Course Research. She recently wrote a co-authored book titled Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo Are Reshaping Everyday Life (Routledge), and is conducting research on sexual misconduct in the higher education workplace and the transition to adulthood during the pandemic.

Carmel E. Price

Carmel E. Price is an associate professor of sociology and an affiliate faculty of the Center for Arab American Studies and the Women’s and Gender Studies programs at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She is cofounder of the College and University Pantries (CUP) research team, which aims to understand the relationship between campus pantries and student success. She has published a plethora of manuscripts and policy reports related to student basic needs insecurity. Her community-based research can be found in outlets such as the Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, Journal of Family Issues, Social Currents, Action Research, and the Journal of Community Practice. She is a part of national policy conversations to end student hunger, and she regularly gives invited talks to institutions of higher education.