Abstract

As the percentage of Latinas attending higher education increases, there should be an increase of Latinas amongst different majors, but we do not see this, partially because there is no data collected regarding this topic. This study investigates the factors that lead Latina’s in their decision-making process when it comes to deciding to major in economics or business and how greatly these factors impact them. The purpose of this study is to better understand what difficulties Latina’s face making this decision in order to better support and ultimately help grow the Latina population within these departments to close the gap between peers. In addition, this study utilizes interviews and letter format methods to approach the understanding of the factors Latinas use when deciding whether to major in economics or business. I hypothesize that cultural factors, such as families, play a role in the decision-making process for Latinas also possible discriminatory experiences within the departments may be a factor. Theories such as intersectionality, familismo, and marianismo will be used to gauge the factors that impact their decision. I conducted five interviews amongst Latinas of different ethnicities who are currently pursuing a major, have completed a degree program, or ever thought of majoring in economics or business to ask what factors they consider when making their decision and their thoughts on the economics and business departments. Results show that Latinas consider their culture and higher education as factors when deciding on majoring in economics or business.

Advisor

Lee, Sina

Department

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Women's Studies

Keywords

Latinas, culture, family, gender, religion, intersectionality, underrepresentation, gender roles, Chicana

Publication Date

2024

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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