Women in Academia – reflecting on the empirical and the personal

1. Women in Academia – reflecting on the empirical and the personal Dawn Mannay School of Social Sciences Cardiff University MannayDI@cardiff.ac.uk

2. Outline • Research Findings • Homework or Housework? • Capacity to Care • Class and Higher Education • Shifting the focus - Researcher Under the Lens

3. Research Overview • Mothers and Daughters on the Margins: Gender, Generation and Education ERSC • University Challenge CUROP • Research Site – Hystryd • ‘Los Angelization’ of socio-economic terrain • Participants • Position of the researcher • Mature students in Russell Group Universities

4. 3 Research Questions • PLACE - How does the immediate location feature in and mediate women’s educational, family, relationships and employment histories (mothers) and futures (daughters)? • SOCIAL REPRODUCTION - To what extent do inter-generational (e.g. mother’s and daughter’s) narratives of their educational experiences, employment histories, social networks, relationship cultures and gendered identities converge and diverge? • GENDER - In what ways do interpersonal relations, broader social networks and institutional cultures and practices intersect and operate to regulate women’s educational, social and employment opportunities and orientations?

5. Methodology • Making the familiar strange (Delamont and Atkinson 1995; Mannay 2010) • Power and participatory methods • Three methods of visual data production • Place, Space and Possible Selves • Auteur Theory (Roes 2001) • Psychosocial and narrative approaches • Unforeseen disclosures (Mannay 2011) • Sandboxing

6. Homework or housework? • ‘It’s not too bad with these irons they got now… I’m not there all day like I used to be, just half a day’

7. Capacity to Care • Caroline:He says ‘I hate that nuniversity I wish you never started that nuniversity’ • Bethan: And the washing up and the hoovering, I like to do it sometimes (pause) because I still feel like I’m doing something for my children, I’m • Interviewer: Mm • Bethan: For where they live (pause) does that make sense

8. Class and Education • Adele: I’ve just I’ve always been close to my family and I hope that when I’m older I still am • Interviewer: Mmm, so d’you worry about that when you do your (degree)… • Adele: I don’t now because so far I haven’t changed (laughs) (both laugh) I don’t think I have anyway • Interviewer: (laughs) • Adele: But it’s just when I’m older when I have a house and that, and um hopefully and nice cars and things, I, hope I still remember where I came from

9. Education and Separation • Emma: I think there was a bit of jealousy see at the start of me joining college …yeah it was like I don’t know it ah, it’s weird right saying this, but the first couple of months, I think there was like a bit of grief you know what I mean (laughs) …it was like grief, like I lost something

10. Request to Shift the Lens • Social scientists explore other peoples lives • Asked to share my own journey today • Shifting to the other side of the lens • !

11. Nothing is more telling than a story • The story I was invited to tell • http://inspiring-women.org.uk/2012/08/24/determination-and-degrees-dawn-mannays-story/

12. Cool Runnings • Yul Brenner: Look in the mirror, and tell me what you see! • Junior Bevill: I see Junior. • Yul Brenner: You see Junior? Well, let me tell you what I see. I see pride! I see power! I see a bad-ass mother who don’t take no crap off of nobody!

13. Summary • Women in academia are faced with multiple psychosocial barriers • Multimodal and creative methods • Subjective experience as expert testimony • Informed rather than ignorant policies • Community collaboration and support • Responsive institutional and structural change to engender equality in contemporary Wales

14. References • Barker, D. 1972. Keeping close and spoiling in a South Wales town’, Sociological Review 20, no. 4: 569-590. • Bennett, T., Savage, M., Silva, E., Warde, A., Gayo-Cal, M. and Wright, D. 2009. Culture, class, distinction. Abingdon: Routledge. • Davies, R., Drinkwater, S., Joll, C., Jones, M., Lloyd-Williams, H., Makepeace, J., Parhi, M., Parken, A., Robinson, C., Taylor, C. and Wass, V. (2011) Anatomy of Economic Inequality in Wales, Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods, Research Report Series WISERD/RSS/002. • Delamont, S. and Atkinson, P. 1995. Fighting familiarity: essays on education and ethnography. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press. • Mackay, H. (2010) ‘Rugby – an introduction to contemporary Wales’ in Mackay, H. (ed) Understanding Contemporary Wales, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp.1-24. • Mannay, D. 2013. ‘Keeping close and spoiling' revisited: exploring the significance of ‘home’ for family relationships and educational trajectories in a marginalised estate in urban south Wales.Gender and Education, 25 (1), pp. 91-107. Impact Factor: 0.460 Ranked: 141/206 in Education and Educational Research • Mannay, D. 2013.  ‘I like rough pubs’: exploring places of safety and danger in violent and abusive relationships. Families, Relationships and Societies. 2 (1), pp. 131-137 • Mannay, D. 2013. ‘Who put that on there... why why why?:’ Power games and participatory techniques of visual data production. Visual Studies, 28 (2), pp.136-146 • Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2013. Anatomies of inequality: Considering the emotional cost of aiming higher for marginalised, mature, mothers re-entering education. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. 19 (1), pp. 57-75. • Mannay, D. 2010. Making the familiar strange: Can visual research methods render the familiar setting more perceptible?Qualitative Research, 10 (1), pp. 91-111. Impact Factor: 1.426 Ranked: 14/89 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary and 25/138 in Sociology. • Rose, G. 2001. Visual methodologies. London: Sage. • Sennett, R. and Cobb, J. 1993. The hidden injuries of class. New York: W. W. Norton. Skeggs, B. 1997. Formations of class and gender. London: Sage. • Walkerdine, V. 1997. Daddy’s girl: young girls and popular culture. London: Macmillan.