Spring/Summer 2004

Volume 33
Numbers 3-4

Learn First:
The Policy of Access

In 2000, women represented 60 percent of the low-wage workforce in the United States. Because many of these women lack a college education, they hold low-wage jobs that offer little economic stability, few health benefits, and virtually no opportunity for career advancement. As the United States continues its shift toward a knowledge-based economy, in which education beyond the high school level is increasingly essential to employment, access to and participation in postsecondary education will be key to low-income workers' ability to move out of poverty and achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, low-income workers face numerous challenges in pursuing postsecondary education, such as financing their education and balancing the demands of both work and school. Low-income women face the additional and extremely difficult challenge of managing family responsibilities.

According to the 2000 census, single mothers accounted for nearly 50 percent of all women below the federal poverty line (see Figure 1). The responsibility of single parenthood imposes an enormous disadvantage on women living in poverty who wish to return to school. In 1999, 41 percent of low-income adult women who were enrolled in degree-granting institutions were single mothers (see Figure 2). Given the high proportion of low-income women who are single mothers, both nationally and among women enrolled in colleges and universities, it is not surprising that the lack of access to daycare is a major barrier for low-income women who wish to pursue postsecondary education.

Unfortunately, all too few postsecondary institutions provide childcare. In 2002, only 25 percent of degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the United States offered on-campus daycare. Even among public two-year colleges and universities, which enroll the largest proportion of low-income adult students, only 26 percent provided daycare (see Figure 3). Many of the institutions that do provide childcare must ration it by giving priority to full-time students, leaving fewer than half of low-income single mothers eligible for these services.

Clearly, postsecondary education plays a critical role in low-income Americans' path to economic self-sufficiency. But it also is clear that this path is beset with challenges that can impede low-income individuals' ability to pursue education beyond high school. Unfortunately, many low-income women face particular barriers that can deter them from acquiring the education they need to realize their potential.

Reference

Lovell, Vicky and Heidi Hartmann. 2001. Increasing economic security for low-wage women workers. In Low-wage workers in the new economy: Creating opportunities for those who work hard but remain in poverty, ed. Richard Kazis and Marc S. Miller. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.