Barriers to educational attainment for rural women exiting welfare

In this paper I look at 12 women who were on welfare and their barriers to becoming self sufficient through education. They are in rural areas in the state of Louisiana and relied on welfare as a support system. I will examine their abilities to eventually obtain education and stable employment. In this paper, I use the qualitative data provided by Dr. Pam Monroe of Louisiana State University to examine the relationships of schooling, skills and recent work experience to the women’s paths to becoming self-sufficient. This study provides information on the extent to which education leads to job stability and the lack of education leads to poverty