Gender identity, intergenerational dynamics, and educational aspirations: Young women’s hopes for the future

Abstract

This chapter examines intergenerational relations between mothers and daughters and the intersecting factors that shape gender as embodied subjectivity and as integral to the organization of social life. Its focus is young women and educational and social aspirations, and the discussion proceeds via two extended case studies drawn from Australian research projects that engage longitudinal, cross-generational, and comparative perspectives. Everyday and interpersonal dynamics are explored as sites for understanding gender relations and identity in the making. An account of identity is proposed that acknowledges psycho-social and intergenerational dynamics, and it is argued that the situated, s..