Challenges, changes and consquences : women and the college experience at midlife

Abstract

This study is a narrative inquiry into the transformation in women’s lives based on the experience of higher education at midlife viewed against the background of their previous educational experiences. The socio-cultural framing of the women’s childhoods is very important, as historically this cohort is the last of its type in terms of traditional embeddedness of class, gender and the Church in Ireland. The study emphasises the transformative capacity of higher education, despite the challenges faced by mature female students who have family commitments as well as other personal, social and cultural demands. It highlights the challenges, changes and consequences encountered and experienced by the women through higher education. A combined conceptual and theoretical framework of a Gadamerian – feminist phenomenology was used to capture through narrative analysis, the women’s lived experiences. Semi-structured interviews of ninety minutes’ duration of thirty women provided the data which were grouped in themes generated from the analysis. Twenty-five of the women were Irish, and five were of Eastern European, Jamaican and Nigerian origin. The findings agree with previous studies in relation to the risk of damage to relationships when a mature woman enters college, and the stress associated with the two ‘greedy’ institutions of family and college. The roles of wife and mother together with that of student, combine to place almost intolerable stress on the women. This study is significant in that it reveals an existential change, as it was found that higher education changed the women’s values regarding life. Appreciation of material goods and concerns over money diminished and gratitude for what was important in life grew. As with the previous studies, self-confidence improved, but there was also the change in how they viewed themselves in relation to those in positions of power. There was a tangible move from a position of subordination to empowerment. Higher education provided learning and knowledge, and more so, power, yet for some there were negative consequences for relationships. The findings demonstrate that higher education is a site for significant learning and transformation. The purpose of the higher education sector may be to provide the necessary knowledge and skills for the workplace, but the actual experience of college for the women in this study went way beyond the instrumental, and resulted in an epistemological and ontological change.