Many women believe that they must choose between a female identity (e.g., wife, mother) and strong academic or professional identity, failing to see how they can be integrated or enhance and bring even greater fulfillment and purpose to the other. My colleague, Lucinda Spaulding and I just finished conducting a study, explaining the development and concurrent intersection of academic identity with other identities, and, how female students, especially those who are mothers or desire to become mothers, develop and intersect their multiple identities in order to persist in the doctoral journey. I look forward to seeing this study published and sharing with doctoral students, faculty, and administration the model developed, which clearly demonstrates how identity intersection, while challenging at times, is also a fulfilling and enriching process.
For now, I wanted to share a few ideas from the study as well as implications for female doctoral students derived from the findings.
Women with female identities (wife, mother, caregiver) and professional identities (educator, administrator) who begin their doctoral degree are embarking on a journey that requires them to transform a familiar academic identity, that of a student, into the unfamiliar identity of a research scholar. The energies and resources needed to make this transformation are finite, meaning that as a woman focuses on and nurtures her academic identity, she needs to have the necessary supports (internal and external) to develop as a research scholar and see this identity as compatible with others (Jones & McEwan, 2004). Moreover, rather than developing multiple identities in isolation, the valuing and developing of a research scholar identity can only take place as the women saw meaning in developing it, and in turn intersecting it with other primary identities (female, professional).
So, what are necessary supports that female doctoral students can ensure they have in place to maximize their identity development and support their persistence? Here are a few suggestions, Lucinda and I make the following suggestions in our forthcoming article:
- Spousal support is a significant factor associated with doctoral persistence and partners need to have candid conversations about their roles in the home and be aware that if the wife returning to school results in role reversal in the relationship or differentiation this may result in marital stress that will need to be resolved or negotiate different roles and responsibilities. Partners need to develop strategies to address and manage the added stress and be prepared to grow and develop together. Additional supports include parents, friends, social groups (e.g., church groups or military wives), and doctoral peers.
- Familial integration is essential to persistence and partners need to collaboratively determine the best season to begin and the most optimal schedule (daily, weekly, etc.) for supporting academic identity development while balancing other female and professional identities and responsibilities.
- Sacrifice is necessary on the part of the female doctoral candidates. This involves managing and perhaps even adjusting expectations regarding their pace or redefining their own standard of perfection. Candidates can use self-talk to give themselves “permission” to slow down and most importantly, to realize that they are not expected to “have and do it all,” but to recognize that it is acceptable to have a “long term view,” selectively determining which identity(ies) will take “center stage” in any given season.
- Finally, females need to recognize how their identities can inform and intersect. For example, commitment to transform or ameliorate problems observed in a profession may provide the candidate the motivation and passion needed to persist in the dissertation phase of the journey, the most challenging stage. A desire to model commitment and tenacity to her children may also motivate the female candidate to persist to completion. Female candidates need to find linkage and connection between identities.
Look for this forthcoming article. You can see additional suggestions for candidates in our chapter:
Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J. & Spaulding, L. S. (2015). The intersecting identities of female Ed.D. Students and their journey to persistence. In Stead, V. (Ed.), The Education Doctorate (Ed.D.): Issues of Access, Diversity, Social Justice, and Community Leadership. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.