A Thursday analysis indicated considerable educational gains for Latinas in the U.S., but income gaps compared to Latinos and white males.
The University of California, Los Angeles' Latino Policy and Politics Institute revealed that more Latinas are seeking bachelor's degrees than ever before using 2021 American Community Survey data.
The number of Latina students pursuing a bachelor's degree or above climbed from 1 million in 2000 to over 3.5 million in 2021, and the percentage of degree-holding Latinas quadrupled from 5% to 20%.
Latina women are more likely than Latino men to have a bachelor's degree, independent of age, place of origin, veteran status, or English ability. More Latinas than prior generations are also pursuing higher education.
These findings agree with other researchers: Latinos had the fastest rise in advanced degree attainment, led by Latinas. However, the researchers found that Latinas with bachelor's degrees received lower incomes than Latinos and non-Hispanic white men, complicating these large educational gains. Latinas made $6 less per hour than equally educated Latino men and $14 less than white men. The median Latina earned $26 per hour, less than most college-educated workers of any race or gender.
"For Latinas, their educational attainment varies really greatly depending on their lived experience," co-author and UCLA LPPI senior research analyst Misael Galdámez said. Country of origin may affect college access. Most South American Latinas have bachelor's degrees, but Honduran, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan did not.
The poll found that East Coast Latinas had more bachelor's degrees than West Coast Latinas. Bachelor's degrees are more common among Latino veterans, regardless of gender. In the poll, Latina veterans had 15% more bachelor's degrees than nonveterans.
"We hope at UCLA LPPI that by understanding their lived experiences and how that affects their likelihood of earning a bachelor's degree, we can implement policy solutions empowering Latinas to improve their well-being and quality of life," Galdámez said.
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