Partners for success? Undergraduate women’s post-feminist constructions of intimate relationships

ABSTRACT

Past research suggests that undergraduate women have faced educational cultures in which their college experience is defined through romantic experiences. This study expands this literature by investigating how heightened achievement expectations for undergraduate women inform their broader conceptions of intimate relationships, by asking the following research question: how do high-achieving undergraduate women conceptualise intimate relationships? Through qualitative analysis of 76 semi-structured interviews, I find that study participants reject gendered narratives of romance and instead preserve their achievement by constructing two ideal relationship logics: independent and companionate logics. I suggest that participants’ conceptions of relationships have undergone a notable inversion: students’ constructions of positive intimate relationships centre on the maintenance of academic achievement and autonomy, and show the long reach of neoliberal, ‘post-feminist’ ideologies into women’s everyday lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• young women
• romantic relationships
• higher education
• neoliberalism
• post-feminism
• academic success
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. All reported percentages are approximations.

2. All names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded through support by an AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship.