Americans pursue college degrees with hopes that this achievement will open doors and create opportunities for life- and family-sustaining, professional employment. But due to systemic barriers, institutionalized racism and intentional denial and exclusion of women of color, many would-be graduates are still denied access to a college degree…

Apprenticing in a skilled trade is an opportunity that has not been fully accessed by women. Per 2019 figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up only about 12% of the nation's apprenticeships, despite comprising half the U.S. workforce. Additionally, female apprentices are concentrated mostly in social service occupations, as…

The problem addressed by this study was the disproportionately low retention of racial minorities and women in STEM degree programs in community colleges. Although underrepresented groups are enrolling in STEM degree programs, they still face barriers that impact their retention, which has resulted in unequal outcomes across multiple STEM fields.…

The Century Foundation (TCF) and the Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) announced the convening of the second cohort of their Industry and Inclusion project to develop solutions to advance racial equity in manufacturing. The second Industry and Inclusion Cohort includes representatives from twelve community colleges who will participate in a…

Informed by Black feminist thought and intersectional feminism, this study examined the lived experiences of 12 Women of Color on community college STEM education pathways. Participants were current and former community college STEM students, whose narrative interviews were analyzed using Patricia Hill Collins's domains of power framework.…

This study seeks to fill in a gap in the research on student experiences of campus life during the Great Depression. Based on student newspapers and yearbooks at one junior college in an agricultural region of the southwestern United States, this article examines student representations of campus life. At Riverside Junior College, particular views…

Sociologists of education have explored the relationship between students' postsecondary aspirations and their propensity to get "cooled out" in community colleges. However, researchers have directed little attention to students whose aspirations remain stable over long periods of time or to the different roles that college degree goals…

Community colleges open the door to opportunity for millions of Americans who want to pursue higher education and secure their economic futures. As an organization founded on the basic principle of making college accessible to women, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) has been a leading voice for women in education and the…

Two-year colleges in Japan have traditionally absorbed the major portion of female college entrants due at least partially to long-held gender stereotypes: women are to prepare themselves for marriage and homemaking at a two-year college. Recently, Japanese women began to explore selfhood outside the traditional realm of motherhood and womanhood.…

The uniquely Japanese institution of the tanki daigaku (two-year university) known as 'junior college' in English was seen as Japan's answer to increasing participation in higher education. Initially established on a provisional basis in 1950, becoming permanent in 1965, they were the higher education institution (HEI) of choice of almost 500,000…

Feminist analyses of the "chilly climate" have documented the ways in which women have been and continue to be marginalized within institutions of higher education. Yet there has been little attention to the relationship between the "chilly climate" and the lived experiences of particular populations in specific educational…