The Use of a Feminist Discourse

Contemporary history reveals women’s growing liberty in the home, workplace and society (McNay, 1992; Arnot, 2002; Walby, 2011). Dyhouse (2002) acknowledges in making a comparison to women’s opportunities even twenty years ago, women have greater choice in their work and personal lives, but inequality still remains. Whilst Bryson (2007) agrees with this, she contends that women still take the lead in balancing work with family and childcare responsibilities and this maintains inequality in the workplace. Women are still striving to have domestic labour and childcare within the home recognised as ‘work’, despite the role of feminism to improve opportunities for women through the generations (Reay, 1995; Ribbens McCarthy and Edwards, 2011).

Whilst all of the mothers interviewed agreed that parenthood was a choice, a common theme through many of the interviews with the mothers was the suggestion that marriage and having children was an automatic expectation entered into unconditionally. The only three daughters interviewed who had children, Maya, Leanne and Leona, presented the notion of much more choice and decision making around the time they chose to become parents once their careers were established, albeit with restrictive factors. They also discussed the negotiation involved in being working mothers.

This research also gives equal attention to the daughter as a younger member of the family and as such, potentially one of the most silenced voices of the family (Arnot and Reay, 2007). The immediate assumption is that mother and daughters share a reciprocal, supportive bond, yet the dyadic mother-daughter connection, like all relationships, can be complex and often difficult. The nature of family relationships allows an exploration of the extent to which educational or employment choices were determined by the freedom of individual will or if maternal guidance constrained any decisions (Gregor, 1997).

This study is a valuable way to explore generational shifts in life chances and employment prospects for women (Ribbens and Edwards, 1998). Reflections upon the lived experience of having to make choices surrounding education, work and family as a female could only come from mothers and daughters, as suggested by Walkerdine, Lucey and Melody (2001). Walkerdine et al.’s (2001) argument that the hopes and ambitions of women are driven by the class system adds a further dimension to my exploration into the inter-family relationship and whether economic and social changes have affected educational diversity during the time period between mother and daughter accessing higher education.

This research began from the viewpoint that class and gender is inextricably linked, particularly in terms of academic outcome (Arnot, 2002). The possibility of accessing higher education is reflected through the interwoven

nature of familial dispositions and aspirations, alongside the change in women’s roles in society. This is in addition to addressing the practicalities of having the academic and financial ability to attain a university degree.

3.9 Conclusion

This chapter has evaluated the process that was followed to bring this research to the data collection stage, beginning with the research purpose and the research question, formally submitted and accepted by university ethics and arriving at the interview process. Narratives from field notes have also been used to highlight how personal experiences have also informed my understanding of being ‘the researched’.

Through the interview process and understanding people’s actions and past experiences, an important aspect of this research is to make meaning by ‘connecting and seeing the consequences of actions and events over time’ (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005: 656). This is particularly relevant to the generational theme of this study. Using narrative enquiry, the participants’ stories can be used to reflect on their emotions, thoughts and actions, which will inform the study. Narrative analysis can be envisaged as too tidy and refined through the process of disseminating life histories and making them ‘fit’ into the theory, yet the autonomous stories and experiences also allow a ‘continuous redefinition’ and renegotiation of the theoretical basis of this research (Becker, 1982: 58)

Arnot and Reay (2007) consider that family and social identity have a strong impact on young people’s lives, choices and pathways. This style inherently brings subjectivity to the study, with myself as both a mother with a daughter and as a mature research student. I have considered the research from an insider/outsider position and this has brought positive aspects of being able to engage with participants with a shared sense of understanding, whilst respecting my outsider role as researcher. Researching with an outsider perspective still enables in-depth conversation with the participants, but recognises that there are clear boundaries on conversation and levels of

understanding. This allows the participant to retain their agency with the choice of the level of information that they choose to share, aware that insider research is always partial (Ribbens and Edwards, 1998).

Ethics were a key consideration in both the research design and the interviews themselves, strengthened by the use of a feminist methodology as a strategy for gaining the most appropriate narratives. The use of a feminist framework, both philosophically and ethically, has raised the necessity to be conscious of engaging in a sensitive manner with the participants in understanding their different voices in private and public debates, in order to create as valid and honest responses as possible (Ribbens and Edwards, 1998). This research is not only looking specifically at women’s access to higher education, but also a wider understanding of women’s roles as individuals, females, daughters and/or mothers. This data will aid identification and analysis of if, how and why their identities grounded their educational experience. An overview has been provided of the participants themselves and the strategies employed to gain and support their involvement in this research. A critique has also been given of the difficulties of finding the correct sample and the issue of gatekeepers at various educational institutions.

The way in which this study has been approached and the influences that have helped shape its design have been critiqued here, highlighting both the positive and more difficult aspects of creating the best possible research framework. Despite much planning, discussion and brainstorming, things have not always gone to plan or, in some cases, materialised at all. The ‘contradictions, pleasures and satisfaction’ is what Craib (1994: 84) regards as ‘messiness’ in familial, qualitative research and why its insight into real life makes it an invaluable methodology.

Chapter Four