“You Can Be Anything But You Can’t Have It All”: Discursive Struggles Of Career Ambition During Doctoral Candidacy

Abstract

Guided by Relational Dialectics Theory, the goal in this study was to understand how one group of women—married doctoral candidates—talk about and position their career ambition in light of the relational and cultural discourses they encounter. Data consisted of 30 in-depth interviews with married female doctoral candidates. With discourse highlighting the double bind of “you can be anything” and “you can’t have it all,” participants faced conflicting messages suggesting that their career ambition was simultaneously admirable and selfish. Analysis of participants’ talk about their career and relational identities revealed varied attempts to challenge, resist, and transform the restrictive gendered discourses they encountered.

Keywords:

• Academia
• Gender
• Marriage
• Relational Dialectics Theory