Minha Khan: Exploring the Influence of Households on Low-income Female Pakistani College Students

Households matter. They influence the educational attainment and occupational aspiration development of students. Scholars have found an overwhelmingly positive relationship between household involvement and student educational and aspirational outcomes. However, most investigations of this relationship have occurred within a Western context. Minha Khan explores the influence of households on low-income female Pakistani college students’ educational and occupational journeys. Her research advocates for the need to re-assess existing theories of education from an intersectional and feminist lens before claiming generalizability, while highlighting the harm that can be done when policy decisions are made on the basis of non-inclusive literature, especially for marginalized communities.

Minha Khan is a Sociologist of Education with a particular interest in educational access and opportunity. Her research has previously explored how schooling in a child’s non-native language can make learning inaccessible, how household and gender norms complicate accessing higher education for female students and the role of education in breaking the inheritance of despair in low-income families. Since graduating from Stanford University in 2021, Minha has been working as a Research and Design Consultant at Noora Health, USA, and The Citizens Foundation, Pakistan. She is also an incoming postgraduate student in Oxford University's Social Policy and Intervention Department. In her free time, Minha enjoys drinking tea, having conversations, and trying to figure out how the world works.

Erin Baker, Ph.D. (she/her) is an associate professor of sociology at Minot State University. Dr. Baker's research explores motherhood, mental health, education, and homeschooling.  For more information, visit https://erinebaker.com/

Whitney Hunt, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colgate University. Whitney’s research broadly explores social and cultural constructions of gender and race, with a particular lens on how individuals and groups engage with institutions of media, science, and technology. For more information, visit her website.