Gendered journeys: experiences of
participation in higher education by
working class adults
Lyn Tett, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Paper presented at SCUTREA, 31st Annual Conference, 3-5 July 2001, University of
East London
T
HIS paper examines the gendered journeys of a small group of working class people
towards their participation in HE. Although access to HE remains largely determined by social class (see
Scott, 1995) it is important to look at the interactions between class and gender in order to understand
the factors that impede participation by nontraditional groups. As bell hooks argues (1989:22) 'There is
widespread acknowledgement that sexism, racism and class exploitation constitute interlocking systems
of domination'. This paper is based on the students' descriptions of their experience and what they
conceive to be the possibilities open to them in education. However, their recollected experiences do not
transparently reflect reality but are 'part of a continuous process of identity construction and
representations through which [people] make sense of their experience' (Britton and Baxter, 1999:180).
Methodology
The data I will be using to illustrate my arguments come from a study of a group of working-class
community activists who were taking a part-time accelerated degree in community education (see Tett,
1999). They were supported on the course by staff from a project called the Lothian Apprenticeship
Scheme Trust (LAST). The project 'seeks to achieve equality of outcomes for people whose
circumstances, geographic, physical or cultural, would not permit them to consider becoming
professionally qualified' (LAST, 1994:2). Documentation on the planning of the course and on the
recruitment and selection procedures was gathered and analysed. Once participants had been recruited
the application forms and brief written accounts of their work in the community, which were submitted as
part of the selection procedures, were analysed. These provided information on their socio-economic
and personal characteristics, their role in the community and their reasons for wishing to take part in the
course.
Once they had started the course, after three months, eighteen months, and again after two years,
the seventeen participants (six males and eleven females all from the Registrar General's classes 4 and
5) were interviewed, individually and in small groups. They were questioned about their experience of,
and attitudes to, education, learning and the course. The interviews were transcribed and analysed and
this information was used to identify common themes. Interviewees were provided with copies of the
transcripts and encouraged to reflect on the issues that they had raised. Some also engaged in the
writing of brief autobiographies focussing on the theme of learning and education and made these
available to me. All of these data are used to illustrate my arguments throughout the paper. In the text
their first initial identifies interviewees and some demographic data is provided.
Gendered journeys
Bourdieu (1993: 88) has developed the concept of 'habitus' - 'a power of adaptation' - as a way of
understanding individuals as a complex amalgam of their past and present but an amalgam that is
always in the process of completion and so open to change. Habitus operates at the sub-conscious level
and so is beyond the reach of introspective scrutiny or control by the will but, Bourdieu argues, 'is no
more fixed than the practices which it helps to structure' (1984: 466).
This conceptual tool is a helpful way of examining the experiences of these students to see the role
that educational institutions play in both changing and reproducing social and cultural inequalities from
one generation to the next.
Different groups have different views of educational institutions, depending on their relationship to the
dominant group. These students, who all come from families with no history of attending any form of
post school education and who live in socio-economically excluded geographical areas, are likely to
share assumptions about the lack of opportunities available to them in the education sector (Ball, 1993).
Moreover, in telling stories of their educational experiences they will be constructing an identity and,
simultaneously, constructing and presenting a sense of self (see Kehily, 1995: 29).
In order to see how this group made sense of their gendered and classed experiences I will look at
three themes: their post school learning experiences; their views about higher education; their attitudes
to being working class. I have chosen these themes both because they emerged from the interview data
and also because they have been identified as significant in the literature (McGivney, 1990; Reay and
Ball, 1997).
Post school learning experiences
Although all of the 17 interviewees described their experience of school negatively they were able to
give positive examples of learning that had taken place at a later point in their lives. These experiences
for the men tended to be through institutionalised community activities. For example: 'Learning for me
took place through Trade Union and Labour Politics and through working at the grassroots with the
tenants' movement.'(A. M, 37, white). 'What I've learnt since school has been through being involved in
campaigns especially the one to keep the Accident and Emergency Department open at our local
hospital. (P. M, 38, white). For the women it was much more related to their personal experiences. For
example: 'I'd fallen pregnant at 17, got married and then stayed at home. I was really bored and I
wanted to prove I could do something for my daughters and myself so I went to the Further Education
College. My husband didn't like it so I stopped studying because he convinced me I was neglecting him
and the kids.
Then we split up and I got involved with the local women's group and working with them taught me
how to get my confidence back' (K. F, 26, white). 'I ended up meeting a group of black women that were
beginning to challenge things I was able to connect to my experience so I learnt something that's always
stayed with me' (Z. F, 24, Black).
For all the interviewees their stories recognise and validate the knowledge that grows out of their life
experiences. They also show how individual behaviouri s mediated through gendered ways of viewing
and describing their worlds.
For some students their later learning and life experiences changed the way they thought about
themselves but again these were gendered with the females tending to relate experiences which were
about their family life whilst the men emphasised their relationships with their friends.
For example: 'My husband desperately wanted a family but I didn't. Eventually I gave in but once our
son was two years old he left. That made me learn to be a stronger person on my own because I had to
stand on my own feet' (T. F, 36, white). In contrast the men said: 'I was taken to court after a fight in a
pub. I was innocent but the bouncer said it was me. I couldn't grass on my mates so I just accepted the
fine.
I learnt from that that it's easy to get labelled and I've never forgotten it.' (N. M, 44, white). 'Real
learning for me was when I went on a Youth Exchange to Italy. I'd never left Scotland before and it was
meeting a whole lot of great people and finding we could communicate (S. M, 23, Black).
The stories that the interviewees told were differentiated in these ways regardless of the person's
marital or parental status and show the contrasting focus of the two genders in the way they described
their experiences. This finding is confirmed by other research, for example, 'gender differences emerge
in the emphasis placed on the domestic domain by the female students as compared with the male
students' (MacDonald and Stratta, 1998:76).
Views about higher education
When the students were asked who they thought higher education was for, and why they had not
themselves previously participated in it, they generally gave structural reasons. For example, 'I think that
Higher Education works well for people who have got the money or the status and because of that they
are able to make the time to do what they want to do' '(A. F, 31, Black). The explanations as to why they
did not have 'the money or status' were different, however, with women prioritising gender and men
class.
For example: 'In our community girls didn't go into further education because they were going to get
married and have children' (D. F, 45, white); in contrast to 'You need the support to get through all the
barriers that exist for the working class to get an education' (S. M, 23, Black).These students, then,
showed their awareness of the structural inequalities that impeded their journey towards becoming
university students, rather than seeing their nonparticipation as solely the result of a personal lack of
ability (see also Green and Webb, 1997).
Yet, inevitably, their awareness of who could and couldn't enter HE demonstrated they were
positioned as outsiders and continued to construct themselves in this way. As one student put it, 'People
from my area don't go to university' (D. F, 45, white). However, as their confidence grew about gaining
an academic qualification so their attitudes to HE changed. 'LAST is great because it provides the
support to keep you believing that you can do it, both through the tutors and through all the financial
support for childcare, transport and so on.' (R. F, 41, white, disabled). In addition, an important theme of
the course was the development of awareness of how working class people are excluded from
education by focusing on the ways in which access to education is socially and economically structured.
This approach enabled the students to identify their own experiences of exclusion as a positive
contribution to their studies.
Once these students had successfully completed their first year having the time and the permission
to participate in HE seemed difficult, but perhaps ultimately attainable, although the difference having a
degree would make was once again gendered. For example: 'I want to be my own person at the end of
this' (F. F, 28, white) in contrast to - 'I'm here to get the professional qualification' (N. M, 44, white).
Other findings show that for women it is often the 'growing independence of children that provides a
space for mothers to concentrate on their own education ...[whilst] redundancy and unemployment were
more likely to act as triggers for men' (Webb et al, 1994, 210-211). In the case of these students,
however, child-care costs were met from the projects 'funds and all the participants had part-time paid
employment. This means that the material circumstances of the students were similar but their
orientations were gendered being much more instrumental for the men whilst the females had less
specific ambitions.
Another difference was that the female students brought their domestic lives into the university whilst
the males kept the domestic and personal separate from institutional and academic demands. For
example, the women said: 'I'm always spinning plates so whenever the kids are ill then everything falls
apart' (Z. F, 24, Black). 'I just don't have a place to work. I had to move back into my mum's house and
she's only got the one spare bedroom so I'm sharing that with the two kids' (P. F, 25, white). References
to their children and home life were absent from the males' accounts of their lives although they clearly
felt the same pressures on their time. 'Just not having enough time for things is the major drawback. I
don't have time to potter about in the library which means that you have to focus on the actual work
rather than being able to look at wider issues' (A. M, 37, white). Similar gendered differences were
reported on by Edwards (1993) in her study of mature women students and she also showed that the
juggling of demands between home and study impacted on female students much more strongly than
males.
Attitudes to class
These students all come from communities where not being middle class was valued and where very
careful monitoring for pretensions took place. Students were very concerned that they were still seen as
being part of their own communities despite their being in HE - 'I don't want to be seen as a wee swot'
(S.F, 39, white); 'I'm still rooted in my community' (A. M, 37, white). It is not surprising that, in contrast to
the students' descriptions of their other experiences, their attitudes to being working class did not appear
to be differentiated along gendered lines with the whole group seeing their class position as an
important resource. For example: 'I'm working class and proud of it' (A. M, 37, white). 'My life is richer
where I am than it would be elsewhere so I'm not intimidated by all these middle class people' (D. F, 45,
white). To be a member of the working class, however, has material implications and for this group
economic survival was clearly important. Here there were gendered responses to what this meant. For
example, 'I want security for my kids and independence' (L. F, 29, white),'I want to do my own thing' (J.
F, 26, white) from the women contrasted with; 'I want a professional's salary' (B. M, 42, white); 'I want to
a permanent full-time job back in my own community' (N. M, 44, white) from the men. So, although the
students articulated an identity framed by class and gender, they had expectations about their own
futures and for most of them this meant greater financial security.
The focus, however, tended to be more towards the family and their personal development for the
women and more focused on gaining employment for the men. Again then, the interviewees'
understanding of their identity was premised on their past and present experience as mediated through
the lens of gender.
Discussion
In this paper I have argued that, although class is completely central to the lives of these students,
their interpretations of their experience are clearly gendered. The stories people are able to tell are
related to the narratives that are available to them and these include the different meanings that men
and women typically give to education. It is not surprising, therefore, that the emphasis placed on the
domestic domain by the female students is contrasted with the implicit influence of the future labour
market by the male students.
These 'ready narratives' (Kehily, 1995:28) have contributed to their struggle to 'negotiate an identity
formed, and often sustained, outside the [institution], with the demands of academic life' (MacDonald
and Stratta, 1998: 78). They have made decisions as to the appropriateness and feasibility of their
educational options both in the context of their conception of their other responsibilities and through the
ways in which they have been positioned as subjects within the discourses of class and gender. These
decisions have been reinforced through the assumptions and expectations of family members, and the
communities in which they live and grew up, about education and 'the meanings associated with social
positions and positions in knowledge' (Skeggs, 1997, p9).
In this case study and in the literature (Green and Webb, 1997; MacDonald and Stratta, 1998) the
women have cited family and community as the central features of their experience whereas the men
have described employment and institutionalised political and community activities as central. These
gendered assumptions about where the different sexes' main responsibilities lie reflect societal
suppositions about women's role as carers for their children where their core work is seen as being
focused around the details of maintaining family and community life. As one student put it, 'my mother
and my husband can't see why I'm doing this. They just see me as neglecting the kids and not doing the
things I used to do in the community' (R. F, 41, white). Moreover, for most of the women, participating in
higher education was acceptable only if it was seen as 'giving a better life to the kids' (S. F, 39, white),
or 'putting something back into the community' (D. F, 45, white).
Luttrell (1997: 119) confirms these findings in her study, where the women she worked with who had
returned to education interpreted doing something for themselves as unacceptably 'selfish', doubted
their intellectual capabilities, or viewed their desires for voice and visibility as wrong.
Although this paper is based on the students' descriptions of their experience, I am not arguing here
that these are an unmediated guide to 'truth' but rather that the students recollected accounts should be
viewed as a practice of making sense, both symbolically and narratively, of a range of possibilities.
Experience does not transparently reflect reality but is a collection of mediated relationships that need to
be taken out of the realm of the taken for granted if they are to be interrogated and challenged (see
Brah, 1992).
How the students have interpreted their experience of education and learning has been influenced by
their understandings of what it means to be male or female as much as by what it means to be working
class. The narratives that they have provided have created a version of identity which is historically and
socially located and, as Britton and Baxter (1999: 192) point out, 'men and women tell different stories,
which not only reflect differences in their life experiences but also different understandings of the self'.
In the interviews the men have drawn clear distinctions between the public and the private and
presented a unitary self. In contrast the women's narratives have been much more about themselves in
relation to others. This may be because for women to prioritise their own needs is to challenge both the
cultural assumptions about women's place and the patriarchal division of labour.
Throughout the interviews an interesting finding is that the women have been as aware of their
gendered position as they have been of their class position, whereas the men's consciousness of
inhabiting the category 'man' has been minimal. This is not, of course, surprising since dominant groups
rarely need to be conscious of the factors that give them their privileged position. The claim to a lack of
identity or positionality is itself based on privilege, 'on the refusal to accept responsibility for one's
implication in actual historical or social relations, the denial of one's own personal history and the claim
to a total separation from it' (Weiner, 1994: 35).
The women's understanding of the ways in which their experience is mediated through the lens of
gender could be used to develop 'really useful' as opposed to 'merely useful' self-knowledge (see
Johnson, 1988). In this project both genders have asserted the value of their experience and through
this act of resistance have challenged some of the ways in which they have been excluded from higher
education. These stories illustrate that identity formation and struggles are about the personal choices
people make, the doubts they express, the strategies they devise, and the efforts towards self-
transformative journeys that they take.
Luttrell (1997) has argued that telling life stories can provide impetus and direction for new and
'better' ways of being in the world. 'Better' stories also clarify power relations and the costs of alternative
actions' (1997: 119). Once we believe that our own story has value, and we share it with others who
receive it positively, then we are likely to feel better about ourselves in ways that enable us to challenge
the status quo so that our views can be seen, heard, and taken seriously.
In this way the experiences and stories that have been excluded, and the mystification caused by
'expert' knowledge, might be interrogated as a way of articulating 'views from below' (see Barr, 1999:
162). This would then allow new claims to be made for the legitimacy of reflexive experience leading to
'really useful knowledge' for those who are involved in generating it. In questioning the discourses of
class and gender that frame the ways of thinking that are regarded as legitimate, it begins to be possible
for students to open up new ways of reflexively thinking about the social construction of their
experiences of education and the gendered journeys that these entail.
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