Power, jobs and bodies: the experiences of becoming a gender scholar in doctoral education

Abstract

Research suggests that doctoral students' learning and experiences are influenced by their relationships and predominant organizational norms and structures, create gender inequality and discourage or prevent alternative behaviors. However, there is very little empirical information on the nature of doctoral experiences and organizational activities and processes when an academic program focuses on gender. The study reported here approaches learning as a cognitive and social activity to identify and illuminate events and interaction students describe in becoming scholars as they negotiate their roles and relationships in an interdisciplinary program of gender studies in German-speaking Europe. Three dominant themes or factors shaped students’ experiences: (a) power and tensions associated with it, (b) jobs: discovering what was to be done, and when and how to do it to be successful, and (c) bodies: the doing of gender.