The Portrait of a Superwoman: Finding Compatibility and Balance Between Motherhood and Graduate School

Abstract

The number of female students has increased at the tertiary level especially in the graduate and post-graduate levels (Perry, 2018). Women, after earning their college and master’s degrees, finding employment, and having family, are coming back to universities to go through their doctorate programs. These women are students and, at the same time, wives and mothers of young children. Negotiating between these demanding and conflicting roles and finding compatibility and balance, these women lead phenomenal lives, making their life stories inspirational and exemplary to those who may want to emulate them. We used narrative research, which utilizes storytelling as a device, and portraiture, which employs artistry and aesthetic portrayals of experiences and captures richness in narrative texts (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). The study focused on the participants’ experiences of the phenomenon to sketch a composite portrait of a superwoman. The participants were seven students of an international Christian higher education institution who (a) had young children (infant to elementary school age), (b) were pursuing their PhD degrees, (c) were full-time students, and (d) were willing to participate. Data yielded the following major themes: (a) images and voices of the past, (b) images and voices of the present, and (c) images of the future. The images and voices of the past were positive and empowering. The images and voices of the present were both positive and negative. The participants, at this time, were confronted with questions about how well they could juggle their multiple roles and satisfactorily perform each of them. Images of the future were positive. The portrait that emerged is a woman who has found balance among her multiple roles through dependence on the providence of God, a strong support system especially that of the husband, and a high level of self-efficacy.