Women and Higher Education in the News

My last post focused on the Utah Women and Education Project and the study they conducted with women from throughout Utah. For those interested, Dr. Susan Madsen gave an interview recently about the study's findings. Thanks to Missy for posting this on Facebook.

Utah Women and Education Project

Throughout the United States, there are more women enrolled in college than men. The national average for women's enrollment is 57%. However, Utah is well below this average, and at 49% enrollment, we are actually the lowest in the nation. I was surprised in learning this last week when I attended a presentation given by Susan R. Madsen about the Utah Women and Education Project. This project was created to understand and determine why enrollment for women in Utah is so low, and how to move forward and make improvements.

A qualitative research study was conducted to examine the factors influencing Utah women's decisions to go to college. The demographic of the study consisted of 245 women, ages 18-32. 89.9% of the participants were white, 80.4% LDS, 44.1% married, and 56.2% from Salt Lake and Utah counties. Here's a look at the what the research of the UWEP has revealed.