Your Strategies

Abstract

Now that you have identified your goals, the next step is to work out how you are going to achieve them. To convert your dreams into reality you will need to develop tactics both for achieving your objectives and for surmounting the obstacles which you might encounter. Your strategies should be devised to deal with the institutional issues which you will face as your research career develops, as well as providing you with the personal support which you will need. The authors of this book have made it very clear in Part I that women’s careers are unlike men’s in many significant respects. Many mothers interrupt their careers whilst their children are small, as chapters 1, 3 and 5 show. Women will find that the unskilled jobs which they might take are lowpaid and low-status, lacking the power to influence the decision-making structures of the organization. Women often have to react to circumstances over which they have little control, leading to a discontinuous career. In Part I, we have tried to theorize and explain our lives and experiences as researchers, and this chapter will encourage you, too, to apply the skills of analysis and critical awareness to your own situation.