Education, Work and Catholic Life: Stories of Three Generations of Australian Mothers and Daughters

Description

This book reports on innovative interdisciplinary research in the field of cultural studies. The study spans the early twentieth to twenty-first centuries and fills a gap in our understanding of how girls’ and women’s religious identity is shaped by maternal and institutional relations. The unique research focuses on the stories of thirteen groups of Australian mothers and daughters, including the maternal genealogy of the editor of the book. Extended conversations conducted twenty years apart provide a situated approach to locating the everyday practices of women, while the oral storytelling presents a rich portrayal of how these girls and women view themselves and their relationship as mothers and daughters. The book introduces the key themes of education, work and life transitions as they intersect with generational change and continuity, gender and religion, and the non-linear transitional stories are told across the life-course examining how Catholic pasts shaped, and continue to shape, the participants’ lives. Adopting a multi-methodological approach to research drawing on photographs, memorabilia passed among mothers and daughters, journal entries and letters, it describes how women’s lives are lived in different spaces and negotiated through diverse material and symbolic dimensions. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Introduction (Anne Keary)....Pages 3-21 Catholic Mothers and Daughters: A Conversational Tale of Two Families (Anne Keary, Ronnie Egan)....Pages 23-37 My Maternal Genealogy: Remembering and Looking Back (Anne Keary)....Pages 39-56 Girls and Catholic Education (Anne Keary, Kirsten Hutchison)....Pages 57-72 Front Matter ....Pages 73-73 Education and Training, Career Aspirations: ‘That’s What I Remember’ (Lucas Walsh, Anne Keary)....Pages 75-94 Career, Uncertainty and Working Life: ‘Being Classified as Temporary’ (Lucas Walsh, Anne Keary)....Pages 95-111 Life After Study and Training: ‘Building Something’ (Lucas Walsh, Anne Keary)....Pages 113-134 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 Mobility, Travel and Work: ‘I’d Like to Live Overseas Again’ (Anne Keary, Lucas Walsh)....Pages 137-150 Hopes and Dreams: Capturing What Is Not Yet There (Anne Keary, Julie Faulkner)....Pages 151-162 Lies, Secrets and Silences: ‘That was a Disappointment’ (Anne Keary)....Pages 163-177 Stories that Memorabilia Tell in Mother–Daughter Exchanges (Anne Keary, Julie Faulkner)....Pages 179-199 Conclusion: A Coming of Age with Familiar Friends (Anne Keary)....Pages 201-207 Back Matter ....Pages 209-248