This paper is based on the findings of a 3-year, qualitative study funded by the Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes for Poverty. It uses Sen's [1985. "Well-being agency and freedom." "Journal of Philosophy" 82, no. 4: 169-221] capability approach and Bourdieu's [1991. "Language and symbolic power." Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press] critical theory to argue that access participation and the empowering outcomes of higher education are contingent on learners' familiarity with the languages used. If there is a discrepancy between the languages used in higher education and the linguistic capital that learners have acquired during schooling without any appropriate measures to fill the gap, participation is bound to be limited. Findings of this qualitative multiple case study involving eight participants entering higher education from government and private schools in Pakistan reveal that working-class women remain the most marginalised and fail to achieve valued goals within higher education in terms of knowledge construction, participation, and a more empowered sense of identity. This eventually culminates in their delayed elimination from higher education. (Contains 1 box and 8 notes.)