LOS DERECHOS SOCIALES COMO INSTRUMENTO DE EMAN CIPACIÓN

Throughout Pippa’s life as a working mother of two children she found it increasingly difficult to find jobs that paid her well and challenged her. This was particularly the case after her divorce when, as the sole carer of two young children, she could no longer easily travel for work (interview, May 2011). Below, in the context of Pippa discussing her postgraduate writing practices, Pippa explains how she could find work, but after quickly learning a role, it no longer ‘interested’ her:

With all job[s] that I [took] within 6 months I [knew] how to do it inside out, back- to-front, upside down and I can tell you how to do it faster, neater […] and of course I was never high enough to be able to tell anybody how to do it. (Interview, May

2011)

Pippa felt frustrated at not being challenged in the jobs she was able to take on as a working mother. These frustrations were related to never being in a position ‘high enough’ to be in management – or to engage in intellectually stimulating work - which led her to university, where she completed a bachelor degree as a mature student:

So when the children were grown up and they’d left home and … were settled, I decided that I couldn’t carry on … just going to hopeless jobs just to pay the mortgage to live in a house on my own, and so after several nights of difficulty, I decided to sell the house, so that I’d have enough money to go to university – so I was fifty-four and I went to university and I got my degree – got a first. (Interview

with Pippa, May 2011)

Deciding to embark on a university career at the age of 54 (once her children were adults, and had children of their own) came with challenges. A significant source of anxiety related

to pursuing a tertiary education was financial, and these difficulties continued once Pippa had acquired an undergraduate degree. Pippa had to find ways to fund her studies, as well as find graduate level work that stimulated her intellectually (interview, May 2011). Eventually, Pippa felt she was left with a degree, but without the means to support herself which, in turn, led her to consider pursuing a research qualification:

so I thought well, what else would I really want to do and I thought I’d really like to be in the academic world because I love learning things and I love more knowledge and l I’ve always read all the things I can lay my hands on. (Interview with Pippa,

May 2011)

Pippa’s journey through university and into research was not always straightforward. Much to Pippa’s disappointment, after completing a Master in Research, she was not offered a position as a funded research student at USE, and found herself needing to apply to other universities. These application processes required compiling different kinds of written texts for different audiences. Below is an extract from one of Pippa’s more occluded written texts, an application to an alternative university to continue the research she had started at USE within a Master in Research. In addition to a detailed research proposal, her

application to a university included a workplan she had written, which provided details of her planned progression through a PhD (see also Swales 1996 in which he outlines the occluded, yet significant nature of texts like Pippa’s, which are written as part of applications to gain access to universities). Below, is an extract from Pippa’s workplan:

The tensions and desires Pippa experienced during her postgraduate research, are

particularly vivid in her plan (see above) for the ‘April – September 2015’ period where she clearly states her ambition to have a paid position at the university at the end of her PhD: ‘Hopefully by now a job at the University might be offered to the researcher, who wants to remain at University of Northampton’. Pippa’s desire to have qualifications and work which offered her financial security and intellectual stimulation are clear throughout her

discussions and reflections. It is important to note that Pippa’s journey to achieve these objectives was not an easy one. She pursued her studies while facing a series of complex challenges. In addition to working hard to find ways to finance her studies, Pippa was not accepted for a funded place as a PhD student at the university in which she acquired her MRes. Throughout her life, she also felt that employers had overlooked, and underpaid her. She felt that this was because of her unique position as a mature graduate. Despite these challenges, Pippa saw her research studies as a way of bringing about change for herself – a way of inhabiting an alternative intellectual, professional and personal existence – one that had the potential to be more rewarding and stimulating.

WORKPLAN:

January – March 2014

Deep analysis of the transcribed interviews will commence. The researcher will ensure at the initial meetings that all interviewees are happy for her to contact them again, if there are any parts of their interview which are found to be not clear or easy to misunderstand.

…

October – December 2014

Continuation of writing up the thesis, as well as possible changes to the literature review will take place at this time. Discussion with supervisors as to the possibility of writing journal articles based on the PhD thesis and attendance at future seminars.

…

April - September 2015

Viva practice and printing off of the thesis will take place. Hopefully by now a job at the University might be offered to the researcher, who wants to remain at University of Northampton. Viva will be scheduled and undertaken. (Extracts from Pippa’s written text, November 2013)

6.5 Catherine: On women who ‘speak about academic / serious