2019 Annual Conference

Women’s Issues, Status, and Education

Roundtable (45 minutes)

Literature addressing women’s recovery from addiction and employability as a form of economic empowerment are limited. The relationship between adult learning and employability for these women, based on data and literature analysis, will be explored. The women’s perceptions of barriers to employment, such as education, is critical to this discussion.

Participants who will benefit from this Roundtable are 1) faculty in adult higher education and workforce programs who teach diverse graduate students’: students’ whose backgrounds and life narratives are different from others,  2) inter-disciplinary faculty who study and teach health and sociological constructs of gender, education, and work, 3) graduate students’ who share lived experiences of addiction and recovery, 4) healthcare professionals who work with individuals’ in substance use addiction recovery, and 5) AAACE employer stakeholders who wish to learn more about this population for recruitment and retention purposes.

Participants will be able to identify relevant variables for determining adult learning and employment-seeking behaviors for women in addiction recovery.

Participants will be able to better understand barriers to employment associated with women in addiction recovery and impact on perceptions of their own economic empowerment.

Participants will gain knowledge on the relationship between adult learning theory and employability for vulnerable populations.

Scholarly literature addressing women’s recovery from addiction and employability are limited. Bowden and Goodman (2015) found that women victims of substance abuse have limited opportunities and men with similar substance abuse disorders are twice as likely to be employed.  Women who participate in long-term addiction recovery centers may engage in Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) programs that demonstrate minimal employment programming as they prepare to transition to the community. A study by Privott (2014) found that if employers were viewed as advocates for the women, then the women felt more prepared to pursue diverse education and work opportunities previously thought unobtainable. This Roundtable will explore the relationship between employability for these women and adult learning theory– since barriers such as access and participation in education are generally understood as obstacles to individual economic empowerment. This Roundtable also supports the work of AAACE and its efforts to address social and economic disparities that impact individuals’ health and well-being: The adult learning perspective will contribute to a better understanding of these women, and others’ with shared experiences, as they pursue education and work and transition to the community after long-term addiction recovery.

Introduce - interest(s) and synthesized literature/data on learning theory and addiction - 10 minutes

Facilitate using 3 processing questions - 30 minutes

1. How do adult learning theories explain employment-seeking behaviors for these women?
2. Based on summary data and a higher education lens, how do/would you interpret barriers to employment for these women?
3. How would we inspire economic empowerment for these women as they transition to the community – which often includes the pursuit of higher education?

Close - seek feedback (5 minutes):  How does this topic inform your teaching or scholarship agenda? Leaders provide resources/contacts for follow-up