{"id":11623,"date":"2023-10-12T17:33:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T17:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/?p=11623"},"modified":"2023-10-12T17:37:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T17:37:27","slug":"gender-and-freedom-for-college-bound-latinas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2023\/10\/12\/gender-and-freedom-for-college-bound-latinas\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender and Freedom for College-Bound Latinas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Michelle Gomez Parra and Lorena Garcia, <\/span>“\u201cI Have Tasted Freedom\u201d: An Intersectional Analysis of College-Going Latinas\u2019 Desire for and Meanings of Mobility,” Gender & Society<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2023<\/span><\/div>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A young woman wearing college a graduation cap and gown walking down a sidewalk by <\/em>Stanley Morales<\/em><\/a>. Image from <\/em>Pexels<\/em><\/a> is licensed under <\/em>Pexels license<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many pursue college as an avenue of economic mobility, but gender and sexuality can also influence the decision to attend and move away from home. For young Latinas, in particular, household and family responsibilities and traditional gender norms can shape such decisions. Sociologists Michelle Gomez Parra<\/a> and Lorena Garcia<\/a> argue that desires to break free from these gendered expectations are an important part of Latinas\u2019 decisions to move away for college. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parra and Garcia interviewed 31 Latinas who were enrolled in or graduated from a four-year university. The women were all from poor and or working-class families and 2nd generation (born in the U.S., but had a parent who immigrated) or generation 1.5 (immigrated to the U.S. before the age of 12). While the women saw college as an opportunity for economic mobility, they also described gender-related desires for individual freedoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>The women shared how going away to college lowered the burden of household responsibilities<\/span>going away to college lowered the burden of household responsibilities. For example, \u2018Emma\u2019 said: \u201cAfter school, my sister and I washed the dishes, cleaned up the living room, helped my mom with dinner when she got home from work. And weekends we\u2019d go [to] the lavanderia [laundromat]. My brothers didn\u2019t have to do any of that, it was annoying as hell!\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By going away to college, the women could escape these responsibilities and focus on their studies. \u2018Yolanda\u2019 explained: \u201cI didn\u2019t want to always be stuck doing los quehaceres [housework], I didn\u2019t want to deal with that and try to focus on my studies at the same time…I was like, \u2018nope,\u2019 I gotta go away for college.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>The desire to move more freely outside the home also influenced the women. They described how their parents \u2013 in an attempt to prevent their daughters from sexual activity or \u201cquien sabe que” (who knows what)<\/em> \u2013 limited or closely supervised their social activities. \u2018Erica\u2019, a college graduate, explained: \u201cMy dad was always so strict about everything!…I thought, \u2018This is my chance to not have anyone putting so many limits on everything I do.\u2019\u201d<\/em> In terms of identity, being a college-bound teen also allowed the women to distance themselves from the stereotype<\/span>allowed the women to distance themselves from the stereotype that working-class Latinas often become \u201cteen moms.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic mobility and the promise of a bright future are important factors in the decision to go to college, but not the only factor. Rather, for these working-class Latinas, their decisions provided an opportunity to break free of gendered expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Gomez Parra and Lorena Garcia, “\u201cI Have Tasted Freedom\u201d: An Intersectional Analysis of College-Going Latinas\u2019 Desire for and Meanings of Mobility,” Gender & Society, 2023 A young woman wearing college a graduation cap and gown walking down a sidewalk by Stanley Morales. Image from Pexels is licensed under Pexels license. Many pursue college as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2217,"featured_media":11624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,55,13,14],"tags":[138321,138323,138311,138300,138319,138317,20477,138320,138306,138313,138298,138318,78,138301,138310,138312,138308,138299,138307,138304,138305,138315,138309,138314,138322,138303,407,138316,138302],"class_list":["post-11623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-gender","category-inequality","category-race","tag-academic-focus","tag-breaking-stereotypes","tag-burden-of-housework","tag-college-pursuit","tag-college-bound-teens","tag-cultural-expectations","tag-economic-mobility","tag-economic-opportunities","tag-family-expectations","tag-first-generation-latinas","tag-gender-and-sexuality","tag-gendered-roles","tag-higher-education","tag-household-responsibilities","tag-immigrant-background","tag-individual-freedoms","tag-interview-study","tag-latinas-college-decisions","tag-latinx-identity","tag-lorena-garcia","tag-michelle-gomez-parra","tag-parental-supervision","tag-second-generation-latinas","tag-social-activities","tag-social-liberation","tag-sociological-research","tag-stereotypes","tag-teen-moms","tag-traditional-gender-norms"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/files\/2023\/10\/lat.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11623"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11631,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions\/11631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}