Working-class women study social science degrees: remembering enablers and detractors

ABSTRACT

In this article, we report on a feminist memory work project conducted with 11 working-class women in Australia. Participants responded to the question: what helps and hinders working-class women study social science degrees? The women confirmed that to succeed at university, they needed opportunities, resources, support and encouragement. We called these enablers and considered the role of ‘enlightened witnesses’ [Miller, 1997. The essential role of an enlightened witness in society. Retrieved from http://www.alice-miller.com/index_en.php?page=2]. Hindering the possibility of university success were detractors of many forms including inadequate resources and social conventions that discouraged the women from study. We describe saboteurs as undermining people and forces that the women had to overcome. We found that enlightened witnesses, broadly conceptualised, go some way but not all, to mitigating detractors and saboteurs that continue to hamper fair and meritocratic access to tertiary education.

KEYWORDS:

• Detractors
• enablers
• enlightened witnesses
• higher education
• saboteurs
• social sciences
• widening participation
• working-class women

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants for so generously giving us their time and allowing us to understand their experiences through the memory work process we employed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.