The Wiley Handbook of Gender Equity in Higher Education

12Women and the American Community College

Racheal L. Stimpson

[T]he community college is a gendered institution whose practices have not always served and do not currently serve women as well as they could and should be served, given the institution's societal mission and the proportion of women students, faculty, and presidents

– Townsend and Twombly (2007a), p. 215

With more than 1100 institutions throughout the United States and approximately 12.1 million students (American Association of Community Colleges 2018), community colleges are instrumental in degree attainment, education, and employment. Community colleges are defined as “any institution regionally accredited to award the associate in arts or the associate in science as its highest degree” (Cohen and Brawer 2008, p. 5), which includes a variety of 2‐year institutions and technical institutes but is not inclusive of colleges and institutes focused solely on training in the trades. Community colleges are seen as a Western concept, if not American, in education, as there are few other countries that have “formed comprehensive community colleges” (Cohen and Brawer 2008, p. 27). Canada has a similar system, though not identical to that of the American community college system (Cohen and Brawer 2008).

An estimated 3 million women were enrolled in the American community college system in the spring of 2018, accounting for 57% of enrollment (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center 2018); additionally, there are ...