Press Clips

Community Colleges Should Urge Women to Pursue Science and Math Careers, Report Says (March 20, 2012)

iwpr — 2012-03-22T13:28:20Z

Not enough women at community colleges—especially low-income students and those with children—are studying for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, which are among the nation's fastest-growing fields, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

That means women are losing out on job security and the potential for higher wages, the report says. It calls on community colleges to encourage female students to pursue careers in those areas, known as the STEM fields.

Community colleges can play a crucial role in educating women for STEM occupations, says the report, "Increasing Opportunities For Low-Income Women and Student Parents in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at Community Colleges." Those institutions tend to enroll a disproportionate number of low-income women who are also parents, and many such students pursue careers that are not associated with high salaries.

The report recommends actively recruiting women, especially those with children, into STEM programs by emphasizing the economic value of occupations in those fields. Other recommendations include expanding child-care services on campus and offering financial incentives, such as payment for course completion.

Although women make up close to half of the labor force, only one in four STEM jobs is held by a woman, the report says. Employment in the STEM fields is expected to go up by 10 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to the report, and, in some subspecialties, that growth is projected to be up to 30 percent.

In 2009, women in non-STEM careers had median annual earnings of $35,633, the report says. In certain STEM fields, those median earnings ranged from $41,091 (for engineering technicians) to $71,944 (for electrical and electronics engineers).

Within STEM fields, different jobs require varying levels of education, the report notes. For example, students can train to be environmental-engineering technicians or biological technicians at two-year colleges. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates growth rates of 30 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in those two occupations.

Women With Low Literacy Suffer More Than Men: Study (February 8, 2012)

iwpr — 2012-02-09T17:15:00Z

"Analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) found women at all levels of literacy tend to earn less than men, but it's at the lowest literacy levels that the wage gap between genders is most striking.

Women with low literacy are twice as likely as men at the same skill level to be among the lowest earners, bringing in $300 a week or less, the report said.

"Because women start off so low in terms of wages, having higher literacy and more skills really makes a big difference," said Kevin Miller, a senior research associate at IWPR and co-author of the study.

Women need to go further in their training and education level to earn the same as men, Miller said.

The analysis was based on 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy surveys, the most recent data available, and focused on reading skills, not writing and numeric literacy. That data was collected from a nationally representative sample of 19,714 people aged 16 and older, living in households or prisons.

Data showed about one-third of American adults have low literacy levels, and more than 36 percent of men and 33 percent of women fall into that category, the institute said."

Child Care in the U.S. (December 23, 2011)

iwpr — 2012-01-03T17:00:00Z

Balancing Books and Babies (July 19, 2011)

iwpr — 2011-07-26T17:40:00Z

"Rooney is one of about 3.9 million student parents working on their undergraduate degrees in the United States. Nearly half those students are single parents and work full-time jobs, according to a 2011 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research."

Do Universities Support Student Parents?

iwpr — 2011-05-17T15:16:35Z

Handsel represents one of 3.9 million student-parents pursuing post-secondary education. But according to a new report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, only five percent of their child care is supplied on campus. In fact, it's estimated there are only 54,400 slots for the more than 1.1 million children under the age of 14.

The result?

"Without child care, a lot of these parents won't graduate," said Kevin Miller, the report's lead author...

...Student-parents are often erroneously associated with teen pregnancies -- especially now that teen moms are so often featured in the media. But the average age of the student-parent demographic is 33, and 50 percent are married.

"The link in people's minds is stronger than it should be," Miller said. "And this knee-jerk reaction that people have, that maybe we shouldn't be providing them with services, is just a form of victim blaming,"

Paired with this misconception is a lack of data on college campuses about student-parents, as most universities don't maintain records about the students' parental status.

"In terms of designing services and allocating resources, there are campuses where administrators are aware. But on some campuses, student-parents are an invisible population," said Miller.

The Student Parent Trap

iwpr — 2011-03-31T16:10:39Z

"Without the child-care scholarship she found through the Philadelphia-based nonprofit, Family Care Solutions, Rooney says, she's not sure what she would do. She'll find out this summer, when she's signed up for classes but won't have the scholarship.

Student parents like Rooney make up about a quarter of all postsecondary students in the United States, according to a new report released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. The report estimates that of the total of 3.9 million student parents in the country, more than half are low-income. About 12 percent of all undergraduate students in the United States are single parents, and of those, more than three-quarters are low-income. The vast majority of them are women."

Greater Access to Child Care Could Help More Students Graduate

iwpr — 2011-03-31T16:10:00Z

"Greater access to on-campus child-care services would increase opportunities for low-income students who are also parents to complete their postsecondary education, says a new report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The percentage of both two- and four-year campuses with on-site child-care centers declined from 2002 to 2009, the report says. Community colleges are less likely to have on-site child care than are four-year colleges even though a greater share of students at community colleges are parents."