This article explores how women's postgraduate education becomes entangled with heteronormative gender regimes enacted in public discourses that caution against women becoming "too" educated in China. The cultural capital of the PhD is obliterated by the loss of cultural capital resulting from gender non-conformity. Two powerful…

Women of Color have a variety of experiences within academia, many of which are marred by the interstices of racism, classism, sexism, and the hetero patriarchy that upholds the structure of white supremacy in higher education (Gay, 2004; Pena, 2022). However, there is a legacy of Women of Color who have created and continue to create collectives…

The universe of small institutions includes "special mission" institutions. Although these institutions share several similarities, each plays a special and distinct role in higher education, providing a unique culture and experience for their students. They include women's colleges, Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs),…

This dissertation explores the transformative impact of short-term study away courses on women's leadership development in graduate education. Through a qualitative, case study approach, it investigates the experiences of women graduate students (n = 8) participating in an all-women study away course, aiming to uncover the factors that contribute…

Women's experiences in mathematics have been a research topic for a long time. We expand on that research to ascertain whether women's experiences in mathematics have shifted in the past four decades. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, we highlight the experiences of two undergraduate women in mathematics. The findings…

In 1950, the Sisters of Mercy opened Mercy Junior College in Tarrytown, New York for younger members of their order. In 1961, with financial assistance from the Rockefeller family, they relaunched it as a private 4-year institution for women at a new complex in Dobbs Ferry. From 1911 onward, however, the Rockefellers had a complex relationship…

This phenomenological study examines how women and Students of Color who attend a small undergraduate predominately white institution (PWI) make meaning of their experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and how individual and contextual factors influence whether they decide to stay, leave, or add an STEM major. We…

This study quantifies the effectiveness of the leadership development program (LDP) in women's colleges presented by Iwaki et al. (2021), namely that leadership is to influence others to produce results, is acquired, and can be exercised and developed by anyone. In the model, the transformation in the 'motivation' aspect leads to the 'behavior',…

Although the effects of COVID-19 were felt by all students, the pandemic exacerbated the barriers to belonging for women in engineering. Little work to date has investigated women's experiences during the pandemic in disciplines that are hallmarked by masculinity. What scholarship has been completed on pandemic-necessitated virtual instruction has…

Feminism has re-emerged as important and even influential discourse among women, including within higher education. Public support by prominent women has brought an upgraded version of feminism into the mainstream. This version of "neoliberal feminism" however, overlooks the challenges faced by many first-generation, undergraduate women,…

Research has shown that inequitable practices in the educational system have created barriers for Black women pursuing doctoral degrees. These obstacles are multifaceted. This qualitative phenomenological study examined the impacts of racism on Black female doctoral students with a focus on how Impostor Phenomenon and anxiety were exhibited as…

Many observers argue that diversity in Economics and STEM fields is critical, not simply because of egalitarian goals, but because who is in a field may shape what is studied by it. If increasing the rate of majoring in mathematically-intensive fields among women is a worthy goal, then understanding whether women's colleges causally affect that…

Adult female learners are constantly juggling roles amidst a chilly climate plagued by gendered stereotypes and their implications. Bronfenbrenner's interactive development model, encompassing the four components of process, person, context, and time, provides a baseline to understand how interactions between family, school, and work impact adult…

Women with children are one of the growing student sub-populations in higher education. However, the support student mothers receive in colleges and universities has been historically unreliable and their experiences in college have not been studied in depth. This is especially true for student mothers from minoritized backgrounds with differing…

The choice of college and careers are not simple. The choices students make when selecting a college can affect them for their entire life. Tressie Cottom (2017), in her book, "Lower Ed," describes our educational journey like a stream (Cottom, 2017). We are all traveling down the stream of life, and there are rocks and forks. The…