“How Did I Get Here?” Understanding a Gendered Rurality and Its Role in College Going

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating College Access and Rural Identities in Higher Education (Table 10)

Abstract

Utilizing a life history methodology, this paper explored how gendered rural experiences shaped one woman's perceptions of and access to postsecondary education. The data highlight how traditional cisgendered experiences of farm life coupled with a gendered high school curriculum - specifically agricultural sciences and family/consumer sciences (FCS) - shaped her college-going process. The findings help to complicate a traditional feminist critique related to gender, school, and work, illustrating how a gendered rurality may facilitate a gendered form of college-going.

Authors

• Kathleen E. Gillon, University of Maine

• Devin Franklin, University of Maine