ABSTRACT
This chapter shares the findings from a three-year qualitative study of 59 nontraditional-age women at one women’s college in the West. Feminist, critical race, and racial identity theories were used as tools to analyze women’s educational experiences. Diverse patterns ofinitial motivations to attend school, levels of self-esteem, and sense of empowerment emerged from women’s stories. This chapter summarizes these patterns and also introduces a new concept called self-investment (Vaccaro, 2005)—the valuing of oneself enough to believe that personalgrowth, learning, and development are not merely needed but deserved. It includes an investment oftime, energy, andfunding to oneselfas a person, not merely toward a degree. The chapter concludes with implications and suggestions for practitioners who work in any institution of higher education with female students.
