Triple X superwomen: their post-compulsory education and employability

ABSTRACT

The further and higher educational experiences and consequent employability of women with the under-researched Triple X syndrome are arguably unknown. This research study examines their special educational needs (where relevant), and their negotiation of conventional educative systems, throughout the stages of post-compulsory education and into the world of work. The prevalent individualist societal focus means that education bodies promote their qualification offers for students to gain individual employability currency, in order to secure their own futures. Ten women with Triple X were asked to reflect on their post-compulsory education experiences, considering their varying developmental and cultural barriers to access, and their employability skill set against the background of the likelihood of their transferring this to a position of graduate employment. Findings illustrate the significance of socio-economic background and support network, as well as varying individual cognitive capacity and also health status in participants being able to varying degrees, to secure a sense of stability and contentment: yet no woman secured graduate employment. By way of a further conclusion this research discloses the systemic lack of awareness of the existence of Triple X on the part of educational bodies and employers, a problem which further research is needed to address.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-compulsory education
• employability
• Triple X
• special educational needs

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest is declared by the author.

Additional information

Funding

No external funding was accessed for this research project.

Notes on contributors

Kate Attfield

Dr Kate Attfield is a lecturer in Health and Social Care, at the Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy, Cardiff Metropolitan University. She has published in areas of the Gaia concept and sustainability, equality and diversity in education, and the philosophers and educationalists Rudolf Steiner and Millicent Mackenzie, and in qualitative research methods. She has recently published sociology of education research on girls with Triple X. Kate attained her PhD at Cardiff University, where she investigated Deaf citizenship employing sociological methods and the increasingly recognised methods of Deaf studies.