The focus of this paper is on the motivations behind participation and if there is the presence of external stimuli that can trigger adult education participation by women. Questions for the research were given to sixty‐one female returning higher education students to ascertain whether or not seven specific events had or had not happened to the women in the two years prior to their return to college. These seven specific events also were also on a Lykert scale of 1 (no contribution) to 5 (primary reason for return) as to the contribution of these events in the decision to return to school. In a narrative format, the women were asked their top three reasons for returning to school. This question was inserted to verify results from the seven specific events and to capture any factors that were important in the decision that were not listed in the previous events. Although the anticipated results could not be verified due to the small sample size, information was gathered that should be investigated further to garner a true picture of the motivation factors of women in the decision to participate in higher education.
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