And the Search Goes On.........

The Curious Researcher has good ideas. Whoda thought! HaHa. No really, it did help me to think. I was wondering, "Am I really finding anything about women returning to school?" Then in reading CR it said to make a list of assumptions or beliefs about your topic. So I started listing things that I know from scanning my articles.
I discovered many motivations for women's return to education.Such as Finances, Independence, Security, Death, Loss of Job, Self improvement, Empty Nest Syndrome, Role modeling.
What women gain in going back to school is Self respect, peer respect, self reliance, Confidence to name a few things.

I Seem to have the best luck in the ERIC database. I come up with some good articles. One I was able to find was;
"Educational Experiences and Transitions of reentry college women."
This article is focused on the obstacles women face when reentering college and what kinds of support do they have.
Many of the articles I am finding are 10 to 20 years old or older. I often wonder if our issues are the same as the have been over the last 10 to 40 years. I don't think they are the same, but it seems a lot of the research dates way back and is used over and over.

When searching just Google, there are a lot of dead ends. There are many websites trying to persuade women to go to their colleges. There are also a lot of websites promoting financial aid. After wading through those, next come websites for women's colleges and how to meet women in college or women's sports colleges.
I have found that I need to stick to databases.
I keep reading that women out number men in college, but I did a little survey on state colleges and universities and discovered that they are pretty equal. I wonder if it is just in community colleges that women out number men more? That could be another question for my essay.

The search terms that have given me the most success are:
Nontraditional and Students and Female.
Nontraditional learners
Women's education
Reentry and students and women
Nontraditional is a term that has been given to reentry students that are older and interrupted their formal education.

I have gone to the library a few times and it is difficult to find books on my subject. I hope to find a book soon. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to anything.
I am hoping to have a little survey on my topic. I was going to email the survey to all the women in my class. I think I will email them out so you can have your own private response if you chose to respond.

Shannon

One more thing I wish for is to have more time to completely read all of my articles!!!!!!