Extended mothering: maternal influences in daughters’ higher education
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: As part of the process of widening participation in higher education there has\nbeen an accelerated growth in women’s access to undergraduate study. The\nmain aim of this research is to understand generational differences in women’s\nopportunities to attend university in England. The mother-daughter relationship\nis used to explore the role played by mothers in their daughters’ education\nbeyond compulsory schooling, at a time when transition from secondary\neducation to university has become commonplace.\nAn investigation is made into the strategies mothers are employing to improve\ntheir daughters’ higher education choices and prospects. Using a qualitative\nmethodology, paired mothers and their adult daughters have shared their views\nthrough in-depth interviews that discuss education, class, feminism and\nmothering. The mothers’ home and school backgrounds are examined in\nrelation to their daughters’ upbringings, to consider differences in social\nmobility between the generations. A Bourdieusian framework is used to\nprovide a theoretical underpinning, including how middle class values are\nbeing reproduced through mothers’ transmission of their economic, social and\ncultural capital.\nResearch findings reveal that mothers are providing their daughters with\nextended advantage to access a university education, often in contrast to their\nown backgrounds. Mothers are simultaneously maintaining their daughters’\nlifestyle during the study years, supporting their daughters during a period of\nextended adolescence. This enhanced mothering practice is promoting a\ntransformation in familial outcomes and challenges the historical norm of\nfathers’ class background determining women’s imagined futures.\nOverall the research found that despite significant social change the daughters’\ngeneration is failing to engage with feminist issues. The daughters’ decisions to\nmaintain stereotypical female roles challenge the continuing progress of equal\nopportunities for women.
Author: Linda Cooper
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2106948565