You would think that a woman who dedicated time and thousands of dollars to a prestige education would spend more time trying to utilize her earned diploma. A puzzling new study is telling us otherwise.
A new study, which was held at Vanderbilt University by professor Joni Hersch, says that women who’ve graduated form the most elite undergraduate universities in the country are more likely to leave the workplace, at least part0time, than women who graduated from less selective universities.
Hersch says that the women who were educated at elite universities are primes to succeed in their selected career paths, yet many are opting not to. How many to be exact? About 60 percent of female graduates from said elite colleges are working full-time compare to the percentage of 68 percent of women from other schools.
It may seem as if that 8-point percentage is slight, but according to Hersch, that’s a much bigger number than it seems. What is the problem here?
Hersch believes that having kids is the major reason as to why these women cut back on work. Among the women who graduated from better institutions, married women without children are 20 percent more likely to be employed than those with children, while the difference in the probability of employment is 13.5 percent for non-elite graduates.
A theory as to why this happening is simple: highly educated women have more opportunities in their careers, which is why they believe they can be more flexible. Seems to make sense, what do you think?
Ally | Elite.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
