Ventriloqual voicings of parenthood in graduate school: an intersectionality analysis of work-life negotiations

ABSTRACT

Taking a ventriloqual approach to intersectionality analysis, this study investigates the communicative constitution of graduate student parenthood and their work-life negotiations. Analyzing 30 in-depth interviews, we found that figures – ideal graduate student worker norms, gender ideologies of work and family, and cultural values of family and child-rearing responsibilities – intersected with one another in shaping the experiences for graduate student parents. These intersectionalities belong to broader structures that constrain graduate students’ career and personal-life choices to fulfill/disrupt roles in navigating parenthood, yet the interplays of various aspects of intersectionality create space for transformation. The study contributes to an emergent grounded-in-action perspective of intersectionality to uncover systems of interlocking oppressions and lived tensions. The theoretical and practical implications of nonhuman agents acting to enable and constrain sustainable work-life communication are presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Intersectionality
• ventriloquism
• work-life negotiation
• tensions
• parental leave

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 According to the U.S. Department of Education, faculty and departments must grant applicable accommodations to qualifying graduate student parents such as opportunities to make up for missed assignments and deadlines and extension of time for academic milestones because of pregnancy or childbirth.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bilsland Strategic Initiative Fellowship from Purdue University Graduate School.