Agency in action – young women and their sexual relationships in a private school

Abstract

Agency among young women is often understood as fleeting in nature, and studies rarely offer insights into how agency could become a more sustained position. Using data from 54 young women discussing their sexual and intimate relationships, this paper suggests a new way of understanding agency beyond that found in work which stresses agentic practice as resistance or the challenging of dominant expectations and understandings. Instead, through the notion of ‘agency in action’ we begin with young women’s conceptualisations of power. In this study, power was viewed as a resource that is shared between partners, but also a capacity of the self. These conceptualisations offer two new ways of understanding agency in intimate relations – either through ‘reacting into action’ and taking power back; or by ‘starting from’ a powerful position. Central to an understanding of young women’s agency is the role of emotions and recognition of these as motivators for change.

Keywords:

• sexuality
• gender
• femininities
• agency
• emotion

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by a grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (RES‐000‐22‐2398). The views expressed are those of the authors alone. Earlier versions of this paper were given at the Faculty of Education EED Youth Studies Seminar Series, Cambridge University, 10 February 2009 and at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Cardiff, 17 April 2009. We would also like thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and reflections.

Notes

1. Although a more focused analysis of the links between privilege and agency will be the focus of a further paper, an initial examination suggests that the ‘top girl’ media discourse discussed by McRobbie (2007) and others (such as Harris’ future girl, 2004) which to a large extent does encapsulate many aspects of the young women’s lives, suggests that class is likely to play an important role in facilitating the kinds of active, ‘in control’ and ‘I decide’ voices many of the young women used in their narratives. Such a discursive positioning, we argue, influences their practices within intimate relationships. Yet, a number of other factors within many of the young women’s lives also calls for a strong note of caution when making the assumption that privilege links to agency in an uncomplicated way. The very traditional structure of so many of the young women’s families (mothers as the homemakers and fathers out at work, an arrangement many of the young women expected to reproduce in their own futures); the tightly regulated discourse of heteronormativity that pervaded the school’s culture; and the hectic pace of the young women’s lives, which meant few had time to reflect on their experiences and process emotions, suggests agency may not necessarily be so clearly linked to socio‐economic privilege.