6.4c Patriarchy
Patriarchy has its origins as rule by the father whereby the father has power within families and power passes from fathers to (eldest) son. Today, patriarchy is a system by which a social group prioritizes men’s interests, and men have the most power and status. Like White supremacy, patriarchy is not just about individuals’ good or bad intentions but is structural. For instance, women earn less than men with the same education (Statista, 2023). Women with bachelor’s degrees earn 80% of what men with bachelor’s degrees earn (Kochhar, 2023).
Patriarchy and College Savings By Parents
Quadlin and Conwell (2020) focused on the college savings patterns of parents. They analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of students in high school and college. A little more than half the parents of White boys (56%) and White girls (54%), and more than a third of parents of Black boys (34%) and Black girls (38%) save anything for their child’s college education (see Figure 6.7) (Quadlin & Conwell, 2020). Further, the academic potential of White boys, White Girls, and Black boys predicts increasing savings toward college. However, this pattern does not apply to Black girls. Parents do not save more for Black girls, even when they have good grades.
Figure 6.7
Average Parental College Savings at Grade 11 by Race and Gender of Child
Based on data from Quadlin, N., & Conwell, J. A. (2020). Race, gender, and parental college savings: Assessing economic and academic factors. Sociology of Education 94(1), 20-42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040720942927.
Black men and women have higher student loan debt than White men and women (see Figure 6.8). Black families are less able to save for higher education due to historical and contemporary racism that plays out in the form of lower wages and lower home values. Unsurprisingly, White women have more student loan debt than White men, as do Black women compared to Black men. As a result of patriarchy and White supremacy, Black women face the greatest barriers to achieving upward social mobility.
Figure 6.8
Student Loan Debt by Race and Gender
Data based on AAUW. (2021). Deeper in debt: Women and student loans. https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/deeper-in-debt/. Copyright 2021 by AAUW.
It is unclear why parents save less money for college for their daughters than their sons. Parents could hold sexist beliefs about what the future holds for their children, influencing how they save money. For example, parents may expect their daughters to earn less because of their gender, work less because they will become parents, or need them to pay for most of the expenses associated with a wedding. More research is needed to figure out why parents save as they do. Regardless, they save more money for their sons, which hurts girls.