Retrospection on a baccalaureate degree in mid-life: What does it mean in a woman's life?

Abstract

A national higher education public policy agenda enmeshed in economic issues threatens to diminish access and disregard the baccalaureate educational needs of women in midlife. The numbers of adult women attaining bachelor's degrees continues to rise despite societal rewards that favor men in salary and position. Yet, the meaning and consequences of baccalaureate attainment among women who earn degrees in midlife is unarticulated in the public policy arena. An uninformed national higher education public policy agenda threatens to limit adult women from accessing higher education and deprives society of the contributions women have the potential to make. To address this issue, this phenomenological study of eight women explored the meanings and consequences of a baccalaureate in the life experiences of women 9 to 22 years after midlife degree attainment. Through higher education experiences, a majority of women were affirmed and nourished through relationships with others, grew in esteem and development of authentic selves, generated expectations for college completion in relationships with others, and experienced perspective transformations relevant to relationships critical to them. The formal higher education experience in some way was integral to change in the lives of all of the women. Finding suggest perspective transformation occurred for some, but not for all of the women. Perspective transformation was directly or indirectly tied to baccalaureate degree pursuit or attainment. For a woman whose worldview shifted, the change in the way she thought about her life was emancipatory. The participants who renegotiated or disconnected from oppressive or limiting primary relationships incrementally arrived at a perspective transformation. Her changed perspective subsequently guided her way of thinking about herself and shaped her decisions, permitting her growth and freedom in becoming authentic and self-fulfilled. Uncritically acquired meaning perspectives from cultural and parental sources powerfully influenced decisions in early adulthood. The majority of participants, most of the time, did not consciously recognize uncritically acquired meaning perspectives undergirding the decision to earn baccalaureate degrees. As transformative learning theorist Jack Mezirow (2000) posited, the women tended to depend on the meaning perspectives, acting on them uncritically in ways that maintained meaning perspectives. When a woman's meaning perspectives came into conflict with another of her meaning perspectives, she negotiated an accommodation or gave one priority over another without consciously examining the underlying assumptions of her meaning frames. In unconsciously choosing which meaning structure to give priority, participants chose a relational response. Participants attempted to negotiate an accommodation or to straddle the fence rather than disrupt critical relationship connections. When uncritically acquired meaning perspective served to suppress self authenticity, the affected woman tended to act to emancipate herself before consciously becoming aware of her meaning assumptions. The findings indicate midlife baccalaureate educated women are parlaying degrees into careers providing economic gain to society at large, encouraging others to attain degrees, and becoming move widely involved participants and contributors to society. A public policy higher education agenda responsive to the contributions midlife baccalaureate degreed women are making in society will design and implement strategies to increase the numbers of women accessing higher education and will develop strategies to curtail underutilization of women in the marketplace.