“It wasn’t easy but I did it!”

In this report, 25 women with ethnic minority backgrounds tell the story about their way through the Danish educational system. Their stories differ a great deal. However, all the women see education and training as their way to employment.
The interviews show that women faced both joy and challenges during their studies. The women talk about great backing from home, about inspiring teachers, finding networks of like-minded people in the educational institution, but also about loneliness, hard work and difficulties in balancing demands from family and the educational institution.
Several of the women have been the first in their family to take an education. Therefore, they also had to acquire the historical and linguistic background knowledge that they did not get from home.
The survey has been commissioned by the Department for Gender Quality under the auspices of the Minister for Gender Equality and financed by the public pool of funds earmarked for disadvantaged groups.