Abstract
As a sociologist studying low-income families seeking betterment through higher education, I know these women and their fight for the future well. I have followed their lives as a professor, program director, and ethnographer in multiple programs supporting college access and success for single-parents. I have interviewed them on their campuses, and collected journals documenting their day-to-day trials and triumphs. Today I collaborate with student parent researchers to study challenges faced by single-parent students and best practices for supporting their success.
Kristin’s Story
Kristin was a low-income single mother raising her six-year-old son Max in Southern California when I met her in 2009. She was a veteran and a community college nursing student. But Kristin’s foremost identity was “Max’s Mom.” Kristin’s own words provide a compelling introduction to the world in which she lives: I’m a single mother just trying to live the American Dream. The father of my child will have nothing to do with either of us, and it has been like that since day two of my child’s life. I am a Navy veteran who bartends and lives off of the money I receive from my GI Bill and financial aid. I don’t do it because I’m lazy. I do it for my son. I could not imagine going to school full time and trying to work full time. I don’t need someone else raising my child, or the streets raising him. I feel like my education and sacrifices will pay for us in the end, no matter how hard it may be or how many hoops I need to jump through.
I feel like my education and sacrifices will pay for us in the end, no matter how hard it may be or how many hoops I need to jump through.
Kristin was anything but lazy. Taking 13 college credits, she bartended nights and weekends, while raising Max on her own. Her roommate, Jackie, watched Max while she worked. Kristin took classes while Max was at school, with no after-school childcare. Because Jackie watched Max at night, Kristin rarely asked her at other times to avoid becoming burdensome. Only when her need to study hit a crisis, would Kristin ask for help.
Kristin described her biggest difficulty as her “problem with time management,” often blaming herself for struggling to balance her responsibilities. But, her experiences reveal that she did not have enough time or support. A participant in CalWORKS, a partnership between the community college and California’s Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program, she was relatively supported compared to students in other states. However, even with CalWORKS, Kristin still struggled. Analyzing Kristin’s journals revealed patterns she did not recognize. While Kristin has graduated and started her nursing career, she entrusted me to tell her story. Her experiences, and those of other single mothers attending community colleges across the country, can inform strategies supporting single mothers pursuing postsecondary education.
While Kristin has graduated and started her nursing career, she entrusted me to tell her story. Her experiences, and those of other single mothers attending community colleges across the country, can inform strategies supporting single mothers pursuing postsecondary education.
Single Mothers in Higher Education
Single mothers now represent 1.7 million undergraduate students as of 2016, according to a 2019 report from Lindsey Reichlin-Cruse and colleagues at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and the Aspen Institute (Reichlin Cruse et al., 2019). These students often struggle with stops and starts, extending degree completion by several years. According to another IWPR report, only 8 percent of single mothers enrolled in Associate’s and Bachelor’s programs graduate within six years. Longitudinal research by Paul Attewell and David Lavin (2007) found that the average time for baccalaureate completion for low-income single mothers was 10 years; many took longer.
Single mothers now represent 1.7 million undergraduate students as of 2016…
According to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Lindsey Reichlin Cruse and colleagues found that 70 percent of student parents are mothers, and single mothers represent two-in-five undergraduate student parents or 10% of all US undergraduates. Among single-parent students, 88 percent are low-income (Reichlin Cruse et al., 2019). Yet, to date, research on the challenges faced by student parents has been sparse. Philanthropic initiatives, including the Biden Foundation’s, have recently brought attention to improving single-parent student success, especially at community colleges.
Student parents are significantly affected by financial insecurity. Sara Goldrick-Rab, Jed Richardson, and Anthony Hernandez (2017) found that 63 percent of students with children reported low or very low food security; 77 percent were housing insecure or homeless. A recent American Association of University Women report by Kevin Miller (2017) finds student parents hold the highest levels of student debt, especially single mothers. Because the needs of single-parent students often exceed awarded financial aid, they often must pursue public assistance. My previous research accounts how maintaining and recertifying these benefits further exacerbates time demands (2013).
63 percent of students with children reported low or very low food security; 77 percent were housing insecure or homeless.
Three recently released books highlight the challenges and impacts of higher education for single parents. Jillian Duquaine-Watson (2017) details the “chilly” unsupportive climate experienced by single mothers on campus. Sheila Katz (2019) demonstrates the benefits of postsecondary education for single parents, including greater resilience during economic recessions. Fiona Pearson (2019) discusses the variability in motivations and experiences that mark and shape how parenting students engage the college experience through an intersectional perspective.
Struggling to make ends meet, raise children, manage public assistance and student aid, and keep up with schoolwork is overwhelming! When something has to go, school is often the only thing that can. Students view college as vital to achieving “a better life” seeing these breaks as detours rather than defeats. But, to stay in college, and graduate more quickly, single-parent students need better support.
Struggling to make ends meet, raise children, manage public assistance and student aid, and keep up with schoolwork is overwhelming! When something has to go, school is often the only thing that can.
Kristin’s Timeline
I met Kristin while studying the experiences of low-income mothers enrolled in college in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast for my doctoral research. The themes and patterns raised in her experience exemplify the challenges faced by other participants, particularly the phases of the term, highlighting how priorities and crises shift and change.
The themes and patterns raised in her experience exemplify the challenges faced by other participants, particularly the phases of the term, highlighting how priorities and crises shift and change.
The phases are outlined, considering how they are shaped according to Kristin’s current needs, challenges, and “front-burner” demands. These considerations allow higher education leaders, administrators, policymakers, and educators to develop appropriate interventions and supports, corresponding to dynamic shifts across the term.
Kristin begins the semester “Dead Broke.” This changes with her financial aid disbursement, weeks after the semester has started. With financial hardships temporarily relieved, Kristin goes into midterms strong and does well. After midterms, she is burnt out, has exhausted favors from friends, family, and coworkers, and financial hardships begin mounting again. Work/family challenges increase, and pressures to be a “good mom” intensify, while deadlines and assignments drop, like “a bomb.”
Higher education professionals have ample opportunities for interventions that can change the game in college success for single-parent students like Kristin. Reading through Kristin’s timeline, let’s think about how her college might ease her struggles to balance college, motherhood, and making ends meet.
Higher education professionals have ample opportunities for interventions that can change the game in college success for single-parent students like Kristin.
Phase I: “Dead Broke” (Weeks 1-3)
Week 1: “I’m Dead Broke. I’m Already Behind, and It’s Only the First Week.”
Kristin’s college does not distribute student financial aid refunds until the third week of classes. She has no money for gas, food, or necessities. Her bills are late. She has to borrow from Max’s birthday money, “just to scrape by.” Feeling guilty, she vows to replace the borrowed money and add to it to buy Max “a really nice present” when she gets paid. Her last financial aid check came nine months ago. The money is long gone to rent, bills, food, and basic expenses. Kristin cannot afford textbooks and supplies she needs to start the school year. While her instructors expect students to begin reading the first week, Kristin is left on the sidelines.
While her instructors expect students to begin reading the first week, Kristin is left on the sidelines.
Week 2: Still Scraping By
By week two, Kristin is still broke but has borrowed a few textbooks. She is concerned about falling behind and has already missed class, feeling unprepared, and she reports staying up all night catching up on homework. Her journals discuss “problems with time management.” She is tired and overwhelmed, and still Dead Broke!
Week 3: “We’re Not Gonna Die!”
Kristin’s financial aid refund comes! The influx of cash feels like an oasis in the desert. She can pay bills and debts, buy groceries, school supplies, and celebrate Max’s birthday! But, she remains worried about catching up in her classes. She identifies “time management” among her key concerns, struggling to balance classes with work and parenting. Then, both Kristin and Max get sick!
The influx of cash feels like an oasis in the desert. She can pay bills and debts, buy groceries, school supplies, and celebrate Max’s birthday!
Phase I Recommendations
Earlier financial aid disbursements
Emergency grants and loans
Addressing textbook affordability
School supplies for two generations
Pre-semester support and coaching
Support Strategy 1: Earlier Financial Aid Disbursements
Financial hardships at the beginning of the term set Kristin up from the beginning to fall behind. This eases when her financial aid refund arrives. Many colleges delay financial aid distribution until the end of the add/drop period. Adding processing time, this means some students don’t get paid until a month after classes have started! However, colleges and universities may distribute financial aid funds earlier. Portland State University disburses financial aid the week before classes start, allowing students to purchase textbooks and prepare before the term starts. Getting funds to students as early as possible is critical to their success.
…colleges and universities may distribute financial aid funds earlier.
Support Strategy 2: Emergency Grants and Loans
If convincing your administration to cut financial aid checks earlier seems impossible, emergency aid can be an alternative. Many colleges and universities offer emergency loans, which students use to pay rent, childcare, or other bills. The balance is deducted from pending financial aid. Karole Dachelet and Sara Goldrick-Rab (2015) suggest that student financial hardships stem from insufficient student aid. Thus, loans requiring repayment only defer the emergency to a later point, making grants preferable. Dachelet and Goldrick-Rab recommend that information on supplemental assistance such as food assistance, housing subsidies, and childcare vouchers should be provided on-campus to address long-term financial challenges.
Emergency aid is critical to retention, and students need their textbooks and supplies the first week of classes. For institutions that delay financial aid disbursement, emergency aid early in the term may be critically timed to prevent students from falling behind from the start.
For institutions that delay financial aid disbursement, emergency aid early in the term may be critically timed to prevent students from falling behind from the start.
Support Strategy 3: Addressing Textbook and Technology Affordability
Three strategies for addressing textbook affordability include cost consciousness, textbook/technology scholarships, and lending programs. Many colleges courses use free materials rather than conventional textbooks. This is indicated to allow students to consider textbook costs during course registration.
At Endicott College, we implemented a textbook scholarship funded by faculty/staff donations. While the scholarship did not cover all the students’ textbooks, it helped students start the term on good footing. Textbook lending libraries are also an option. Students borrow a textbook for the term, returning it when classes end. Similarly, some institutions offer loaner laptops with term-length lending periods.
A note of caution: textbook and technology lending is not the same as placing items “on reserve.” Reserve materials, which are generally restricted to on-campus use, are difficult for student parents, who must negotiate childcare or bring children with them to campus to use them. Some students also struggle with digital course materials. Thus, addressing textbook affordability may be more complex than simply ditching textbooks altogether in favor of online materials. Without textbooks, students are set back for the entire term; thus, it is critical to consider textbook affordability early on.
Reserve materials, which are generally restricted to on-campus use, are difficult for student parents, who must negotiate childcare or bring children with them to campus to use them.
Support Strategy 4: School Supplies for Two Generations
Community colleges might also consider two-generational school supply drives. In Boston, we partnered with local nonprofits to provide school supplies and clothing to children and parents in the college’s single-parent programs. We started this program with a small grant, and transitioned to a cost-free partnership as grant funding ended. For about $20 per student, we gave pencil pouches stuffed with basic school supplies to student parents who met with program staff at the beginning of the term. For about $100 per family, we provided backpacks: students received a backpack full of college supplies, and their children received a backpack filled with age-appropriate school supplies. The program now leverages community partnerships to provide backpacks, clothes, and school supplies to the children at no cost to the college. Partnering with existing community providers can be a simple way to ensure students and their children have the supplies they need to succeed.
In Boston, we partnered with local nonprofits to provide school supplies and clothing to children and parents in the college’s single-parent programs.
Support Strategy 5: Pre-Semester Support and Coaching
It is insufficient to prevent single-parent students from being set up for failure; we must proactively position them for success. Student parent programs might offer “coaching,” to navigate on- and off-campus resources. Meeting with students before the beginning of the school year can ensure that arrangements like childcare, financial aid, public assistance, textbooks/supplies, and transportation are finalized, helping ensure a successful start to the year. Periodic check-ins can help students stay on track and address issues as they arise.
It is insufficient to prevent single-parent students from being set up for failure; we must proactively position them for success.
Phase II: Midterms (Weeks 4-6)
Week 4: Recovery
Kristin and Max are on the mend from being sick. The arrival of Kristin’s financial aid check has temporarily relieved her financial anxieties. Now that she has the supplies and textbooks she needs, Kristin begins recovering academically, just in time for…
Week 5: Midterms
Kristin’s “front-burner” crisis becomes studying. Falling behind at the beginning of the term has caught up to her. She asks coworkers to cover shifts, and asks Jackie to watch Max, so she can study. Although she is exhausted, she begins to feel on top of school for the first time this semester.
Week 6: Burnout Week
After exams end, Kristin feels drained and unmotivated. Midterms took their toll. She spends quality time with Max and takes time for self-care.
Support Strategies for Phase II
Drop-in childcare
Student babysitting and childcare initiatives
Student parent study spaces
Supporting self-care
Support Strategy 1: Drop-In Childcare
Like many single-parent students, Kristin schedules her classes around her son’s school schedule. She cannot afford after-school care and relies on free babysitting from friends and family. Drop-in childcare can help student parents find study time. At Oregon State University, a drop-in childcare center is available while parents use the library. Los Angeles Valley College’s Family Resource Center offers exam week study halls with on-site childcare. Drop-in childcare is especially critical around exams, to support the balance of studying and care work.
Drop-in childcare can help student parents find study time.
Support Strategy 2: Student Babysitting Initiatives
Another strategy for supplemental childcare is a student babysitting initiative. At Endicott College, the Keys to Degrees program worked with education, nursing, and other qualified students to babysit for single-parent students for college-approved purposes. At larger schools, online services can be contracted to provide on-call care. At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, students receive a free subscription to an online babysitting service, including an allotted number of hours of care per term, free to the student. In Boston, a citywide nonprofit, Sitters without Borders, partners with area colleges for babysitting referrals. The program offers evening babysitters for students attending night classes.
The federal Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) program, currently funds a range of student childcare initiatives at two- and four-year institutions across the United States. While this program has traditionally subsidized student slots in campus childcare centers, new initiatives are expanding the use of these federal dollars. At Chemeketa Community College CCAMPIS funds an evening childcare program for student parents at the Child Development Center facility. Where licensing and insurance requirements sometimes raise concerns about providing on-site care, babysitting initiatives, referrals, and subsidies can be an alternative for student childcare addressing critical needs while minimizing costs and liability concerns. However, multifaceted approaches to childcare are necessary to ensure student access to a range of options: from full-time campus-based centers, to drop-in, part-time and emergency childcare.
…multifaceted approaches to childcare are necessary to ensure student access to a range of options: from full-time campus-based centers, to drop-in, part-time and emergency childcare.
Support Strategy 3: Student Parent Study Spaces
Many colleges offer family-friendly study spaces and lounges for students who need to bring their children to campus. Portland State University offers a map is showing these locations across campus. Study rooms include child-friendly toys and activities, as well as adult-sized chairs, tables, whiteboards, and/or smart boards for group work.
Support Strategy 4: Supporting Self-Care
A common metaphor invoked by single-parent students is “putting things on the back burner,” and self-care seems to make its permanent home there. Student parents show high levels of stress, sleep deprivation, and food insecurity suggesting their need for self-care. Before and during exams, consider hosting student activities that include family meals and outreach about self-care. This alleviates cooking and cleaning responsibilities at home while offering food security, social networking opportunities, and emotional support.
Student parents show high levels of stress, sleep deprivation, and food insecurity suggesting their need for self-care.
Phase III: Post-Midterms
Week 7: Job Pressures, Guilt and Grandma
Kristin’s mom comes to visit from 300 miles away. Pressure at work forces her job to the “front burner” crisis and this pushes other things back. Although Kristin feels guilty about not having more time to spend with Max. Having extra childcare while her mom is visiting is a relief, and Max gets to have some quality “grandma time.” Indicators of financial problems begin to reemerge.
Week 8: Halloween
Halloween is an exciting celebration for Kristin and Max. Kristin sees it as an opportunity to spend quality time with her son that she feels guilty about not being able to give him in recent weeks. After a short respite, Kristin’s academic and financial difficulties have fully returned.
Week 9: “The Beginning of Busy Season”
Kristin anticipates the upcoming workload in the weeks before finals as a “calm before the storm.” She again brings up time management, high-stress levels, and building anxiety about finances.
Kristin anticipates the upcoming workload in the weeks before finals as a “calm before the storm.”
Support Strategies in Phase III
Post-midterm check-in
Family celebrations
Supplemental support
Support Strategy 1: Post-Midterm Check-In
The ebb and flow of Kristin’s semester is like a roller coaster as the term progresses. After she goes through midterms, she is burnt out and exhausted and has to focus on extracurricular obligations that she has allowed to fall behind. Might it be possible to help students maintain a better balance of their responsibilities so that the semester might be less chaotic? Similarly, the low point after midterms is an ideal time to check in with single-parent students to begin strategizing end of semester support.
Might it be possible to help students maintain a better balance of their responsibilities so that the semester might be less chaotic?
Support Strategy 2: Family Celebrations
Engaging in family-friendly celebrations, holidays, activities, and events on campus not only exposes children and extended families to experiences that encourage future college enrollment, it also reaffirms a sense of inclusion and belonging. Opportunities for networking between student parents are critical for breaking isolation and stigma and developing professional connections as part of the collegiate experience. Many colleges and universities partner with holiday meal and toy drives to provide gifts to student families. Others host spring egg hunts, Halloween carnivals, and other events through student affairs/activities inclusive of students with children.
Opportunities for networking between student parents are critical for breaking isolation and stigma…
Support Strategy 3: Supplemental Support
Kristin’s financial worries have returned after midterms. Besides her need to return favors to coworkers, financial pressures also mean that additional shifts are appreciated. Kristin is again skipping meals, worrying about bills, and trying to locate resources. Colleges and universities have begun efforts to address student financial hardship through initiatives such as campus food banks and referrals to community-based agencies. Some campus food pantries make considerations for student parents. Other colleges have partnered to bring outreach workers from programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), WIC (Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program), and TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) to campus to process and recertify applications. Across the state of California, CalWORKS (the state TANF program) hosts caseworker office hours at community colleges, including Kristin’s school, making it easier for students to pursue off-campus assistance.
Phase IV: Finals Stretch
Week 10: “A Bomb Has dropped on Me”
“I have several assignments due in all my classes at once,” Kristin writes. Then, her computer fails. Kristin’s college does not have a free on-campus computer tech support office. Not only does she have to start some of her assignments over from scratch, but she also has to compete for computers in the college library to complete them. It is hard to get onto a computer and she does not have time to sit waiting in long lines. Kristin’s usual homework and study time is after Max is asleep. Thus, she needs a computer at home to complete her work. This week leaves Kristin in a state of academic “Red Alert” and overwhelmed.
Kristin’s usual homework and study time is after Max is asleep. Thus, she needs a computer at home to complete her work.
Week 11: The Chaos Continues
The chaos of Week 10 continues as Kristin tries to recover from the “bomb” in her academic workload. She indicates notable financial problems. She begins reaching out to her instructors for accommodations or extensions.
Week 12: Stress, More Stress, and the Holidays
Kristin is now exhausted, broke, academically overwhelmed, and worried about how she will make ends meet until her next financial aid check in late January, two months away. Christmas is coming and Kristin wants Max to have a happy holiday. Since they cannot afford to travel to see family, it’s especially important to her to give him some nice gifts. This means she spends time researching charitable holiday gift programs, searching for “doorbuster” deals, and battling crowds, which she says she feels like she has to do to be a good mom, but she doesn’t have time.
Kristin is now exhausted, broke, academically overwhelmed, and worried about how she will make ends meet until her next financial aid check in late January, two months away.
Weeks 13 and 14: The Finals Stretch
Kristin is now studying like crazy. She feels guilty about the time not spent with Max and having to rely on Jackie. She has very little money for necessities, has fallen behind on bills, is skipping meals, studying into the wee hours of the morning, and is exhausted.
Kristin begins seeking extensive academic support. She goes to instructors’ office hours, the on-campus tutoring center, and academic support services for the first time this semester. Finally, she collapses just over the finish line, writing:
It’s just that “oh well” feeling, that feeling where you don’t want to stress out anymore and well if you know the material you know it and if you don’t, you don’t.
And celebrating the same week:
Today was my last day of finals. I can finally breathe!
Afterward: Dead Broke Breaks
Although research journals were not collected during the weeks between classes, I noticed that the “Dead Broke” phase at the beginning of the term begins sometime during the latter half of the last. Financial hardships marked a majority of Kristin’s term, from beginning without enough money to buy textbooks, to ending behind on bills, struggling to cover basic needs. It is important to consider the role of breaks as opportunities for connecting with students outside the busy rush of the academic term. Breaks can be critical times for taking care of obligations such as benefits applications and re-certifications, completing internships and career-track training opportunities, working additional hours to supplement income, and networking. Breaks can be a great time for student parent programs to check-in and to ensure that students are set up for success the following term.
Financial hardships marked a majority of Kristin’s term, from beginning without enough money to buy textbooks, to ending behind on bills, struggling to cover basic needs.
Breaks are also a time of physical and psychological recovery for many student parents. Many campus-based childcare programs close, or charge additional fees for break-week and/or summer care. Thus, many parents use school breaks to spend quality family time with their children, forgoing other potential opportunities.
Support Strategies for Phase IV
Amping up support
Financial security strategies
Taking things off the plate
Year round Pell
Support Strategy 1: Amping Up Support
As the term progresses, Kristin is under ongoing stress. She needs increasing support moving toward the end of the semester. It is important to individualize support, so unique needs can be addressed while offering group and community-based events designed to target support to multiple students at once. Recognizing that meeting in-person may be difficult during high-stress times, email, app-based, video chat, or family-friendly evening/weekend check-in meetings may reach and better connect with single parent students.
It is important to individualize support, so unique needs can be addressed…
Support Strategy 2: Financial Security Strategies
The combination of exams and financial hardships creates a pressure cooker in Kristin’s life. This is another moment where strategically targeted emergency aid is important. Kristin’s laptop breaks, but she has no means to fix or replace it. While emergency aid may not cover all of her financial worries, it could cover repair or replacement of a laptop. A loaner would also be helpful. It is important to consider the long-term needs of student parents and the reality that financial aid funds are insufficient to cover all costs.
Support Strategy 3: Taking Things Off the Plate
When students are stressed, such as during the end of the semester rush, it is helpful to reduce their other obligations as much as possible. An on-campus holiday toy drive might reduce the added pressures of Christmas, allowing more focus on final exams. Things like community dinners may mean less time spent cooking and cleaning, translating to more available time for studying and even perhaps a little self-care. Think about what might be possible to remove from the list of students’ responsibilities during exams, giving greater ability to focus on coursework.
When students are stressed, such as during the end of the semester rush, it is helpful to reduce their other obligations as much as possible.
Support Strategy 4: Year-Round Pell
The return of year-round Pell Grants is an impactful recent reform supporting student parent success. Year-round Pell Grants allow students to receive up to 150 percent of their scheduled Pell award each year if they attend summer courses. While some additional funds will be directed toward summer tuition, students receiving summer Pell will be eligible to receive nearly $3,100 in additional Pell Grant funds for the year. This additional summer income, in combination with summer childcare and support programming, can enable single-parent students to accelerate their studies and complete their degrees more quickly, while also bringing in additional funds to cover living expenses.
…summer income, in combination with summer childcare and support programming, can enable single-parent students to accelerate their studies and complete their degrees more quickly…
Discussion: Financial Troubles = Academic Troubles
Throughout Kristin’s journals, financial troubles are key issues. Over her semester, Kristin notes that she skips meals an average of 2.5 times per week. Late bills, lack of gas money, borrowing money, and in-kind gifts from family and friends are common themes. Stepping back and looking at these experiences over time, broader patterns emerge.
Financial problems often correlate with academic ones. Importantly, financial struggles starting her first week of classes set Kristin up from the beginning of the term feeling behind. As the academic workload peaks at the end of the term, Kristin cannot perform at her best because of financial worries and depleted resources. The only time she is relieved of financial worries is the brief period after her financial aid arrives. Even though midterms are stressful, this is the only period that Kristin expresses feeling on top of her academic responsibilities. She later indicates that she did well on her exams, which helped her to earn higher grades for the semester overall.
Financial problems often correlate with academic ones.
Although Kristin receives TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid benefits in addition to her GI Bill and Student Financial Aid, she expresses less frustration than many other student parents about the time-intensive labor that goes into maintaining her benefits. Even though Kristin had enough support to eventually complete her degree and begin her career in nursing, many other single mothers across the country continue to struggle and fight to earn their degrees, and they need our help and support to succeed.
Conclusion
Understanding the ebb and flow of Kristin’s life across the term can help those whose work includes supporting student parents with targeted support for single-parent student success. Returning to the words of Dr. Biden, “We all have a role to play. We all have gifts to give to this effort. And even though it’s tough, I have faith in us. I know that we will change for the better. I know we will find a way to help women be students and mothers. We will help them find a way to succeed at school and pay bills. We will help them pursue the opportunities that they want and that they deserve.”
I know we will find a way to help women be students and mothers. We will help them find a way to succeed at school and pay bills. We will help them pursue the opportunities that they want and that they deserve.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge Dr. Lisa Dodson, Dr. Shawn McGuffey, C. Kraft, Aisha Carriero, and the Wellesley Centers for Women Writing Group for their roles in supporting this research and publication. This research was funded by grants and fellowships from numerous sources, including the Russell Sage Foundation, the American Association of University Women, the Patsy Takemoto Mink Legacy Award, Wellesley College, Endicott College, and Boston College.
