Passionate and opportune engagement to accomplish or achieve in talent domains leading to female eminence

ABSTRACT

Eminent women’s lives were examined to find the factors which the women perceived to have contributed to their talent development across seven domains of talent. Using feminist methodology, a Talent Development Model of Eminent Women was developed based on emergent themes from semi-structured interviews and demographic data. From this model, two of the themes found to be catalysts to the talent development with these eminent women were explored and explicated: passionate engagement in talent domains; and taking opportunities to accomplish and achieve in talent domains across their lifespan. These two key themes which emerged from the eminent women’s reflections on their lived experience have implications for other talented females, their teaching, and talent development. Additionally, two of the eminent participants in the research, one eminent actor in the arts, and one eminent medical scientist are used to exemplify their talent development to eminence in these themes.

KEYWORDS:

• Eminent women
• talented females
• talent development
• talent domains
• gender and giftedness

Acknowledgment

Figure 1 from Leonie Kronborg (2010) What contributes to Talent Development in Eminent Women?, Gifted and Talented International, 25:2, 11-27, DOI:10.1080/15332276.2010.11673567, copyright (copyright symbol) World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, reprinted by permission of Taylor and Francis Ltd, http://www.tandfonline.com on behalf of World Council for Gifted and Talented Children.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leonie Kronborg

Leonie Kronborg, PhD., Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Educational Psychology and Inclusive Education, Faculty of Education Monash University. Leonie coordinated courses and taught Gifted Education for 25 years in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia, in addition to supervising PhD students who focused on gifted education. She is Vice President of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, and on Editorial Boards of several international gifted education journals. She has more than 65 research articles on giftedness and gender, eminence and talent development, teacher education and professional learning in gifted education publications.