An ethnography of working class female students at a comprehensive college
State University of New York at Buffalo, PhD Thesis, (1998)Abstract
This is an ethnography of working class female student culture at a private, urban, predominantly White, historically male, Jesuit, four year comprehensive college in the Northeast. This qualitative research integrates a nonsynchronous theory of gender, class, and race relations discussed primarily in the sociology of education literature and feminist literature and applies it to a higher education environment. The notion of intersectionality discussed primarily by Black feminist theorists is also used to help analyze the experiences of the female students. The concepts of nonsynchrony and intersectionality, as applied to this particular study allow for a complex explanation of the dynamics of gender, race, and class for the working class Latina, African American, and White women students at this college. Through the use of individual and focus group interviews and classroom and activity observations, this research uncovers what the academic and social environment at Comprehensive College is like for Latina, African American and White female students from working class families. What are the similarities and differences between the ways in which these different groups of female students experience this environment? What aspects of this environment, as defined by the women themselves, help meet or hinder the differing interests, needs, and desires of these female students? At what level do these different groups of female students interact with the dominant White male student culture? Do issues related to class, race, and gender intersect differently for these female students and does this have an impact on the way these different groups of women students perceive this environment? These are some of the questions explored by this research. The historically male and predominately White higher educational environment impacts the academic and social experiences of these three groups of working class female students in different ways. The Latina and African American women suffer gender inequalities which are clearly augmented by race. These two groups of women also experienced racial inequalities which did not confront the White women. Although the White women do experience gender inequality it is often masked by these womens' membership in the predominately White student culture.