ABSTRACT
The promises of a college education are alluring and the payoffs for many are real: So strong is Americans' belief in the power of education to fix gender inequities that scholars and journalists in large numbers have declared that the shift in the rate at which women are graduating with college degrees fundamentally changes everything. The tensions between women's individual advances in educational achievement and Americans' conflicted beliefs about gender, and social class result in complicated and at times paradoxical outcomes, particularly for women who have operated with the sincere belief that gaining more formal education would advance not only their individual life trajectories but also contribute to overall greater gender equity. Recent studies explain how some of the ideology of the "ideal mother" works to disable the messages of career pursuit and pay equity that college educations promise. By comparison, women across the racial and social class spectrum are negatively impacted by motherhood when it comes to their employment.
