Life irrupted: A narrative exploration of the occupational lives of women who experienced sexual assault while at university

ABSTRACT

University-based sexual assault has been described as an epidemic. An emerging body of research suggests that sexual assault that occurs during university may have consequences for women’s occupational lives; however, an in-depth understanding of these consequences does not currently exist. Given the significance that the university period holds for individuals’ life trajectories, this lack of understanding represents an important gap in knowledge. The aim of this study was to explore the breadth and nature of the changes to occupation experienced by women in the aftermath of sexual assault that occurred during university, in both the short- and long-term. Informed by an occupational perspective, narrative inquiry was used to study women’s first-hand accounts of everyday living after sexual assault. Interviews were conducted with 13 women who had experienced sexual assault while at university, between 2 and 40 years prior to the study. Having been sexually assaulted was found to disrupt almost all areas of participants’ occupational lives in sudden, widespread, and lasting ways. Participants reported that everyday living after sexual assault was not “normal”: doing, even the most ordinary things, required intentional effort. Participants consciously worked to (re)build their lives, including through re-establishing daily routines and undertaking new academic and work trajectories. By speaking to the considerable effort required to construct their lives post-sexual assault, this study presents a deepened understanding of the aftermath of sexual assault that occurs during university and the transformative power of occupation-in-use.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational science
• College
• Narrative
• Occupational perspective
• Rape
• Sexual assault
• University