Efforts dedicated towards broadening participation for Black and other underrepresented groups in engineering at post-secondary institutions has intensified in recent decades. However, Black women have not yet reached parity in undergraduate engineering degree attainment. To elucidate this trend, data from the U.S. Department of Education was…

Background: School nurses play a vital role in ensuring the health and well-being of their students, but little is known about menstrual products and resources available in schools. This study assessed period product resources and needs in Missouri schools from the perspective of school nurses and analyzed differences by district enrollment…

In the United States, 44.7 million individuals carry student loan debt (Bustamante, 2020). Female students borrow money at higher rates than males (Qian & Fan, 2021). First-generation students borrow more than students whose parents attended college (Redford & Hoyer, 2017). Therefore, female first-generation students carry the highest…

The California educational system is facing a major problem of diversity and representation in the teacher workforce. Latina/o children make up more than half of the population of students in California's public school system, yet their teachers do not mirror this population (CDE, 2022). According to the California Department of Education, (CDE,…

A robust cybersecurity workforce is critical for protection against a range of malicious attacks. However, it has been noted that there are many vacancies and a shortage of individuals entering the cybersecurity workforce. This workforce shortage has partly been attributed to the lack of diversity in the cybersecurity field, with women, African…

Underrepresentation of Latina college students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) remains a challenge, even though Latinx students are attending college at an increased rate. While various of the obstacles identified by them mirrored some of the issues highlighted in prior studies, the participants found ways to overcome these…

The purpose of this qualitative autoethnographic study was to address and expand the limited discourse related to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the workplace and the large population of individuals reaching adulthood without receiving a diagnosis. In addition, the study aimed to better the understanding of the intersectional…

This study uses narrative inquiry to explore the stories of Black women who have successfully navigated the professional career ladder in early childhood education. The study examines four narratives, written by Black women in early childhood education through the lens of Critical Race Theory as well as Feminist Theory to understand what role race…

The purpose of this research was to develop an understanding of the shared lived experiences of women with ACEs who dropped out of high school, later returning to adult literacy programs to receive remedial education to prepare for and complete GED requirements, and explored the barriers they had to overcome to do so. The following research…

There is much left uncovered regarding how schools can meet the needs of Black girls when returning to school from suspension. An opportunity remains to identify best practices for Black girls as they reenter school following out-of-school suspension as studies suggest that they have specific needs in public education spaces (Hill-Collins, 2000;…

While the majority of students at Baptist colleges, universities, and seminaries are female, women continue to be underrepresented in senior administration roles and the faculty positions that act as precursors to leadership positions. The purpose of this study was to explore the career pathways of women who have attained senior leadership…

This dissertation examines two policies that affect women's education, bargaining power, son preference, and awareness of domestic violence in developing countries. The first chapter evaluates a conditional cash transfer program in Bangladesh to identify its impact on the education of multiple generations and explores the pathways behind the…

Black girls' intersectionality of race and gender puts them in double jeopardy of experiencing both racial and gender discrimination in brick-and-mortar school settings. Virtual classrooms do not completely extinguish the fires that threaten to incinerate Black girls' academic and personal growth, but for many Black girls, the advent of mass…

This study attempts to design effective messages to promote condom negotiation self-efficacy and safer sex intent among young women in China. An online experiment with 2 (descriptive norm: present versus absent) × 2 (traditional sexual value: high versus low) between-subjects factorial design was conducted on a purposive sample of 241 female…

The Latino population in the U.S. is a community with high family values, pride in their culture and language, as well as great respect to their ancestors. The intervention of our predecessors in STEM-related topics goes back to the Aztec and Mayans, who developed a sophisticated numerical system and contributed to the advancement of society. This…