Exploring Australian women's career transitions: A critical constructivist grounded theory study

Multiple factors impact women’s lives after they have transitioned through higher education and into the workforce, including the struggle to achieve a balance between paid work and unpaid care responsibilities. Despite changes in Australian social and cultural attitudes, career transitions remain difficult for many women in Australia. This thesis presents a qualitative, grounded theory study that explores how women in Australia navigate and experience career transitions; specifically, the transitions to higher education and the workforce which form the pathway to their careers. Emerging from the interviews were two distinct groups of women. Group 1 comprised mature age students on entry to university and Group 2 women had transitioned directly from high school to university. The Group 1 women shared stories about the lack of family and partner support, of time and sleep deprivation, and for some, domestic violence, dominance, resistance and abandonment as they studied. Many of these women experienced an up to fivefold burden of time as they juggled work, care, study, domestic responsibilities, and small business management. Concurrently, many experienced ‘pressure’, ‘guilt’, ‘stress’, changed and broken relationships and financial insecurity. Despite this, higher education held the promise of future security. Group 2 women invariably knew they would go to university, and were supported by their families. Those who married and later undertook further studies were supported by their husbands. For both groups, the university transition experience was influenced by varying degrees of support from families, partners, universities, social networks and relevant higher education and government policies. In the work transition experience however, it was the individual level of resilience required relative to available support that was the significant factor. Initially, a constructivist grounded theory approach was adopted. However, emergent social justice issues arising during interviews and analysis prompted development of a new methodology incorporating a critical perspective. Exploring the integration of a critical perspective required reviewing and juxtaposing constructivist grounded theory with critical theory. The shared axiomatic elements of these paradigms made them commensurable, and adaption made possible the concurrent practice of both. Thus, merging critical theory with constructivist grounded theory resulted in the new methodology critical constructivist grounded theory. It follows the evolutionary path of qualitative interpretive work, addressing the need for a critical stance to expose social justice issues. At the heart of the new methodology is a systematic analysis method, critical colours, enabling examination of the social, political, cultural, economic, structural, gender and historical forces impacting Australian women’s lives. What is more, critical colours analysis processes are adaptable to other axiologically congruent methodologies. Advanced coding methods identified the categories of Time Related Forces, Striving for Security, Transformation of Self and the construct of the Emergent Core Self. Theoretical integration of these categories and construct with critical colours analyses produced the critical constructivist grounded theory of Australian women’s career transitions. The grounded theory reveals the ideologies of neoliberalism, capitalism and patriarchy impose a restrictive framework to the ways in which women’s career transitions are experienced. The model illustrates that the more roles and responsibilities women assume, the greater the time and financial deficits they experience, the more support is required. The grounded theory crystallises women’s experiences as the cumulative effect of the forces of time, study, deprivations, the quest for security (financial and emotional), and the transformative power of learning. The Emergent Core Self makes clear that the women have an altered sense of resilience and knowledge of ‘who I am’. This study reveals that the navigation of career transitions by women in Australia is influenced by the undercurrents of an authoritarian social system skewed to inequality. The implications of the findings point strongly to the need for systemic change where equality is a matter-of-course. From a social systems perspective, it is suggested that the Nordic model provides a system of governance that benefits all citizens. This alternative model offers a solution to embed equity into the Australian systems of governance and social supports. The citizen-centred support characteristics of the Nordic model not only releases women’s burden of time and security, potentially delivering the supportive environment necessary for women in Australian to successfully navigate career transitions, it also provides a platform for equity for all.