This article assesses the relationships between race, gender, and parental college savings. Some prior studies have investigated race differences in parental college savings, yet none have taken an intersectional approach, and most of these studies were conducted with cohorts of students who predate key demographic changes among U.S. college goers (e.g., the reversal of the gender gap in college completion). Drawing on theories of parental investment and data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), we show that both race and gender are associated with whether parents save for college, as well as how much they save. Both black boys and black girls experience savings disadvantages relative to their white peers. However, black girls experience particularly striking disparities: Black girls with the strongest academic credentials receive savings equivalent to black girls with the weakest academic credentials. Results suggest this is due, at least in part, to the fact that high-achieving black girls tend to come from families that are much less well-off than high achievers in other race-gender groups. As a result, parents of black girls frequently rely on funding sources other than their own earnings or savings to pay for their children’s college. These funding sources include private loans that may pose financial challenges for black girls and their families across generations, thus deepening inequalities along the lines of gender, race, and class. These findings demonstrate the power of taking an intersectional approach to the study of higher education in general and college funding in particular.

本文评估种族，性别和父母大学储蓄之间的关系。一些先前的研究已经调查了父母在大学储蓄中的种族差异，但没有采取交叉研究的方法，并且这些研究大多数是针对在美国大学生中人口统计发生重大变化的学生进行的（例如，性别差距的逆转）。大学完成）。利用父母的投资理论和2009年《高中纵向研究》（HSLS：09）的数据，我们表明种族和性别都与父母是否为上大学存钱以及存多少钱有关。相对于白人，黑人男孩和黑人女孩都在储蓄方面处于劣势。但是，黑人女孩的差异特别明显：具有最强学历的黑人女孩获得的储蓄相当于具有最弱学历的黑人女孩的储蓄。结果表明，这至少部分是由于这样一个事实，即高成就的黑人女孩往往来自比其他种族性别群体中成就卓越的家庭富裕得多的家庭。结果，黑人女孩的父母经常依靠资金来源而不是自己的收入或积蓄来支付子女的大学费用。这些资金来源包括私人贷款，这些贷款可能对几代人的黑人女孩及其家庭构成财务挑战，从而加剧了性别，种族和阶级等方面的不平等现象。这些发现证明了采取交叉研究方法来研究普通高等教育尤其是大学资助的力量。