This study utilizes a multi-method approach to analyzing the experience of working class and lower class women's experience in graduate school. A quantitative analysis is used to determine the number of working class and lower class females in graduate school using parents' education as a proxy. Most first-generation females in graduate school were found in Research I universities in the field of Education. A qualitative analysis includes semi-structured interviews of 34 women from two Research I institutions in the Southwest in the fields of Education, Psychology, Health Sciences and Biology. Data consists of the women's definitions of social class, values and experiences as well as their perceptions of graduate school culture and their mobility process during their graduate school experience. The women in this study revealed a contemporary definition of social class unlike academic Marxist and other sociological definitions. Their experiences of graduate student culture reveal a direct conflict with their social class values. Finally, their mobility experience in graduate school reveals contradictory feelings of pride and hiding their accomplishments from family.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/280742 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Sepulveda, Celia Anna |
| Contributors | Slaughter, Sheila A. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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