Chloe Wu is a senior majoring in Business Management and minoring in Legal Studies. Her summer research project, “Understanding and Responding to the Persistent Cultural Narrative that ‘women are becoming over-educated’,” was supported by the Summer Research Program.
Dr. Jill Swiencicki, the interim chair of the English department, served as her mentor on the research project. When asked about the project, Dr. Swiencicki sent, “This is a rhetorical analysis of the phrase, which has persisted across time in the U.S., ‘women are becoming over-educated.’ This research highlights rhetorics of education for women in the present time. Women are seeking education in record numbers, and are a majority in college classes in the U.S. But the cultural rhetorics that prohibited women from higher education remain. This presentation explores how women are subject to three main rhetorics in response to seeking higher education: while those that argue women should be prohibited from education are rare, they persist; so do rhetorics that state that women should seek an education that complements their roles as wives and mothers, or future mates; and those that argue women deserve the right to seek an education for self-determination exist and battle those other two rhetorics. Our research argues that arguments that bemoan women’s over-education are essentialist, male supremacist, heteronormative, and demonstrate anxiety about the emergence of gender equity in education, and its cultural implications. Understanding these cultural scripts helps women to respond to them with agency.”