A Broken Pipeline: Effects of Gender and Racial/Ethnic Barriers on College Students’ Educational Aspiration–Pursuit Gap

Abstract

This study examined the long-term effects of perceived educational and career barriers due to sexism and racism in college students’ pursuit of postgraduate education (PE) and how such effects were different across gender and racial majority/minority groups. With a sample of 2,717 undergraduate students, results from multinomial logistic regression showed that female and students of color not only perceived higher levels of barriers due to sexism and racism, such experiences further predicted the discrepancies between their precollege aspirations and actual pursuit for postgraduate degrees upon graduation. The higher the perceived barriers, the higher the odds of female and students of color not pursuing PE that they had aspired before college. This negative long-term effect was not observed in male students or White students. Moreover, when intersectionality was considered, women of color was the only group where perceived barriers had significant negative effects on the PE gap. Implications were discussed.

Career aspirations, expectations, and perceived contextual barriers in native and foreign-born citizens: An italian case study

“…Cardoso & Marques (2008), addressing a Portuguese sample, concluded that participants with African descent showed a higher perception of career barriers, even those who were born and raised in Portugal. Xu Li et al (2021) stated that students of color perceive higher barriers due to sexism and racism, and a significant correlation between perceived barriers and the likelihood of giving up the higher education levels that students wanted to achieve before college was detected. This longitudinal effect was not observed in White students.…”

Is Support for Feminism Enough for Change? How Sexism and Gender Stereotypes Might Hinder Gender Justice

“…Identity and motivational aspects are also affected by experienced sexism, as sexist teasing negatively affects gender self-esteem in women ( Hack et al, 2019 ) and the perception of sexist barriers predicts the disparity between women’s precollege ambitions and their current attempts to continue studying after graduation ( Li et al, 2021 ). Sexism also predicts individuals’ tolerance for sexual harassment (e.g., Hill and Marshall, 2018 ; Shi and Zheng, 2020 ), men’s victim blaming and approval of the aggressor’s behavior ( Koepke et al, 2014 ), and how women who confront discrimination are perceived ( Jiménez-Moya et al, 2022 ).…”