Student Debt Makes College More Expensive for Women

As a woman of color, I understand how difficult it is to repay student loans. Social workers, on average, earn an average salary of $42,000 (source: Payscale). Yet students are increasingly graduating with $29,000 in student loans (source: The Institute for College Access and Success). This data does NOT include student loan debt accumulated from graduate school. This Bloomberg report reveals women (especially Black and Hispanic women) take longer than men to repay their student loans:

Student debt haunts women for years longer than it stays with men, research suggests. A report from the American Association of University Women shows that women take longer to pay off their education loans, which imposes a heavier burden on their finances years after they graduate. Black and Hispanic women in particular earn much less than other groups over time, and end up struggling the most to get rid of the debt that financed their college educations.