Understanding the impact of eldercare on working women’s lives:a pilot study

1. Responsibility for elder care is now a major issue for families, especially women. It often has an adverse impact on their economic and social well-being. Combining employment with elder care presents particular challenges. 2. Our survey suggests that around half the University's staff have elder care responsibilities, and more expect to take on elder care in the future. 3. There is a considerable additional burden of work for elder carers, which can be very stressful: • these staff are very conscientious about maintaining high levels of performance at work • most of them undertake elder care after working hours and one day per weekend, on top of caring for their own household and children/grandchildren • elder care is more unpredictable than childcare, typically including more and longer crises • although external support services (e.g. from local authorities) may exist, staff are often unaware of these, and elders frequently refuse to accept them. 4. Elder care impacts negatively on women's career development, including by limiting their ability to study for qualifications, undertake research, or seek promotion. This is particularly stressful for women academics now required to do a doctorate, some of whom have had to suspend studies. 5. Flexibility in the workplace, and information about available support (both within the University and from external services) emerge as key issues in enabling women to manage these challenges. 6. The role of line managers in helping women achieve flexibility is crucial. Whilst some appear to be helpful regarding elder care issues, others are unaware or unsupportive. There is currently no specific attention to elder care issues in managers’ training or induction. 7. The University Counselling Service is viewed by line managers as an essential resource for staff involved in elder care, especially following bereavement. However, it is not completely confidential, as line managers' approval is needed for faculties/services to pay for the service. 8. Few staff involved in elder care are aware of University family-friendly policies that may apply to them. Some who had searched for these on the intranet had been unable to find relevant information. 9. HR staff are not aware of the extent of elder care as an issue for staff at the University, and it is not monitored. HR receive requests for dependents' leave for childcare but not for elder care

Social Constructionism

The core tenet of the social constructionist approach is that how we understand and even perceive the world and the objects (including people) and events within it does not necessarily reflect the nature of that world but rather is a product of how the world is represented or produced through language. Thus, for example, what we perceive as a tree is, from the social constructionist’s perspective, largely a consequence of how classifications (such as ‘flowers’, ‘shrubs’ and ‘weeds’) are produced through language rather than being a natural consequence of our perceptual capabilities. This is not to suggest that trees do not have various “natural” characteristics that could be identified and charted, but rather that what are deemed to be the defining characteristics of trees are primarily a product of language. This argument is perhaps best exemplified by the use of social rather than naturally occurring phenomena. Take, for example, the current preoccupation in the media, and perhaps society more generally, with body size and what counts as thin versus fat. While it is probably the case that society has noted differences in body size from time immemorial, its salience or importance as a primary defining characteristic of individuals is more recent. Hence, while all objects (including people) in the world have definite properties, for social constructionists, what is more interesting is why certain properties assume importance and, critically, are then used as the basis for social or scientific evaluation (we will return to this idea below)

You don't know what's around the corner: A qualitative study of professional footballers in England facing career-transition

Career transition in sport is a rapidly growing area within the field of sport psychology. Interest in this area has been fuelled by the need for an increased number of professional athletes seeking support and assistance during transition from sport. However, whilst research in this field has focused in on a wide range of sports, specific research on retirement in professional football has been limited. Because of this it is argued that current research may fail to consider specific issues associated with the transition from professional football. Therefore, in an attempt to add to the existing body of research the current study aimed to provide an in-depth insight into how professional footballers understand their ‘lived-world’ during exit from their sport. A total of eight former professional footballers, who were at the time experiencing the possibility of career-transition, were interviewed in two separate focus group discussions. The interviews were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The key findings from the research show that a lack of control over their lives, lack of pre-planning and preparation for retirement as well as support and ability to seek it led professional footballers to experience heightened levels of anxiety, uncertainty and fear for their futures as well as an unexpected sense of rejection during career transition. These findings have implications for support organisations and those interested in the life-long welfare of professional footballers. It is proposed that an emphasis on pre-planning and preparation, provisions of support and encouraging help-seeking may aid professional footballers during the process out of their sport

“For some people it isn’t a choice, it’s just how it happens”: Accounts of ‘delayed’ motherhood among middle-class women in the UK

Over the past few decades the number of women having their first babies over the age of 35 in the United Kingdom (UK) has increased. Women’s timing of motherhood is invariably bound up with a discourse of ‘choice’ and in this paper we consider the role choice plays in the timing of motherhood among women who have been defined as ‘older’ mothers. This article is based on data from 11 semi-structured interviews that explored the transition to motherhood among ‘older’ middle-class mothers. The interviews were analysed using critical discursive psychology. The women drew upon two dominant repertoires when making sense of their timing of motherhood. Within the first repertoire, ‘older motherhood as circumstance’, older motherhood was presented as the outcome of life circumstances beyond their control, with a lack of the ‘right’ circumstances facilitating ‘delayed’ motherhood. Within the second repertoire, ‘older motherhood as readiness’, women constructed themselves as (now) prepared for motherhood. ‘Readiness’ was bound up with notions of self-fulfillment, yet also assessments of their ability to be ‘good’ mothers. We conclude that, far from a straightforward choice, the timing of motherhood is shaped by cultural definitions of the ‘right’ circumstances for parenthood, but also cultural definitions of ‘good’ motherhood, which may define when women are ‘ready’

Constructivism and the Inescapability of Moral Choices: A Response to Raskin and Debany

In their article on ethics, Raskin and Debany (this issue) raise a number of important issues that merit discussion and have implications for a constructivist stance on ethics, an issue that has dogged constructivist and social constructionist theory and has, in the past, been the focus of a good deal of debate. In my response to their article, I focus on two issues before going on to consider what these imply for a constructivist ethics. The first is the status of “reality”; drawing on the work of French philosophers, discursive psychology, and symbolic interactionism, I argue that the constructivist conception of reality has been widely misunderstood and will outline what I regard as a defensible construction of reality. The second issue concerns the relationship between the individual and the social world; drawing again on earlier work in microsociology, I argue that the “constructed” individual must be understood as emerging from the social realm rather than preexisting it, and I argue for personal construct psychology as a candidate for filling the subjectivity “gap” in social constructionism. Finally, I use these conceptualizations of reality and the person to argue for an ethical stance of “radical doubt” for constructivism

Philosophy and Identity: The Relationship Between Choice of Existential Orientation and Therapists’ Sense of Self

This paper reports one theme – Expression of Identity – which emerged from a larger qualitative study. It suggests that existential philosophy offers an insight into the human condition which therapists incorporate into their world view and that choosing to be an existential therapist is a choice involving passion and commitment