Monitored Mobility: How Social Class and Gender Shape Mobility Projects

• In Event: Higher Education, Mobility, and Stratification

Abstract

We draw on Hamilton and Armstrong’s (2021) concept of “class projects” to understand how class and gender together inform how low-SES students at an elite college navigate major selection. We contend that low-SES students choose majors in light of desired “mobility projects.” Further, the pursuit of mobility projects is also gendered: Women experience dual and sometimes dueling obligations to pursue disciplines with high earnings potential – fields not traditionally welcoming to women – and to pursue careers for the social good. In sum, the pursuit of social mobility in college is fraught with demands for low-SES students, as they simultaneously manage academic interests, future financial stability, and the social expectations of their more privileged peers, a burden low-SES women especially carry.

Authors

• Kaylee T. Matheny, Stanford University
  Presenting Author

• Sonia Giebel, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Philip Hernandez, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ilana Horwitz, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author