Feminist women wanted for PhD research.

'stripping for chubby middle-class goths'

Brilliant!

Carly, come back! It's a shame that you didn't let us know about this discussion that you've just organised On What Terms?: Re-Thinking Feminism and Radicalism Not stalking, just interested in understanding the work your uni (or any uni, actually) is doing in terms of feminism.

That sounds interesting and I bet some of our London based FeMNists would have made an effort to go.

I fall within the age limit too (just) but feel uncomfortable with the age limit imposed.

Originally there was a cut off of age 30, so I would have been too old, but apparently the researcher had to extend the range to 35 to attract more people who were willing to be interviewed.

I'm not entirely sure what the age limit of 18-30 (originally) or 18-35 is intended to achieve. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Hannah Baby boomers are usuall those born post war and not after 1965 ish. When it became gen x - the no hope generation until about 1978 when everything changed again.

I fall within the age limit but tbh the only images that have affected me as a feminist are the mental ones I have of DV and rape victims I have treated. Not really what I think you are looking for OP? However, in the interest of your research being truly representative I would be willing to be interviewed

"I have done research on women under 35 before because there is simply no need for anything else, because it has all been done before".

That's a ridiculous statement. As a historian (with a PhD) to me it is obvious that we will get different answers to the same questions depending on the lens we use to look at what we're examining. What may have been true for 36 year olds, 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 etc years ago will not be the same for 36 year olds today or 36 year olds in 2021. You have to examine everthing by looking at in context. So it is a complete inane fallacy to say 'it has all been done before.' I wish you were one of my students [evil emoticon]

I'm within the age limit too. I would potentially be interested in taking part, but I'd be hard-pushed to think of any images... unless you can count the pictures of Hypatia, Christine de Pizan et al that I've found whilst wikipediaing!

Me too. More info and I might take part :) Agreed on the images thing too, though.

"Actually, I'd be interested in that research because it seems to me that claiming to be a feminist is rife in younger women but backed up with zero foundation at all when pushed for their reasoning even a tiny bit. Along with spouting some, frankly incredible, mysogynistic viewpoints."

^ This is SO true. I live with two girls who claim to be feminists yet one says she looks down on anyone who stays at home to look after her children rather than works and SAHMs are all idiots, and the other is the most insanely un-feminist (and racist, and homophobic, etc) person I've ever come across. She voted for the BNP and is proud of it

I think this sounds interesting, and I'm within the age limit, but would like to know more about the project please.

Also I totally agree with dittany that images have had a negligible impact on my feminism, unless you count screenshots of MN, I Blame the Patriarchy, Shakesville, Echidne of the Snakes etc :o

I do have some nice photos of Million Women Rise though :)

I do think there has been a great deal written by and about feminists from the 70's generation, those women who are in their 60s and 70s now. A lot is known about that generation's experience of feminism. There have been novels, TV programmes, as well as lots of academic research.
There is also a great deal of research on women managers. And on both women and men managers and parenthood. That's the sort of area I have worked in and there is no shortage of studies on the impact of gender, and parenthood, on managers.

And so far there is less on the youngest generation of feminists, because obviously they haven't been around as long. This group of under 35s is already experiencing life in a very different way to us old codgers over 35. They've been growing up with different media and cultural experiences. Most of them will have had working mothers, for instance, whereas when I was a child in the 70s my mother was the only mother I knew who worked full time outside the home. These things are different for each generation and to do a decent academic study you need to take these things into account. It's not always stratified by age, or generation, or cohort, but there are good reasons for doing this.

As for the funding (don't get me started on funding... grumble whinge..) many phds aren't funded so that's often less of a constraint at phd level than subsequently.

"I have done research on women under 35 before because there is simply no need for anything else, because it has all been done before". Okay people who are over 35 off you go, you have nothing to becuase its all been done before ... WTF......want to talk about me, me, me???

fennel - quite right, and your age limits are imposed by the research topics themselves.

just curious how/why feminism has an age limit though, in this context. it isn't apparent why those over 35 can't provide some photos and talk about the development of their feminist consciousness...

but i think you may have inadvertently hit the nail on the head with funding.

what's the betting this has been funded specifically to target young women - with the potential objective of reigniting a feminist interest in a demographic that may see it as largely irrelevant to their lives?

you only have to read the mn boards to realise that's actually not a bad way to spend yer money...

so, on balance, if tis so, tis so. and i no longer have a huge problem with it.

I think people are being a little bit unfair. I do feminst research too, and we often have age limits. We studied 18-30 year olds for a study of transitions to adulthood, and then 25-40 year olds for a study of transitions to parenthood. Not because noone can be a parent outside that age group, but because we needed a way of systematically comparing across age groups and generations and across various countries. Without limits you can't compare your data, and you want it to fit into a wider framework of knowledge.

And we would like to study older workers in transition to retirement too, we want to do right across the life course, but as it happens the funders are often more interested in youth.

Not that I would ever study burlesque, myself...

I think that it would be good if Carly provided a bit more context and answered all these questions about the age limits.

Sorry, msrisotto, I should have put a "some" in there. I would include my younger self in my description too.

Ayerobot There are young feminists out there who don't think objectification is empowering! I'm one of them. I had already been approached about this and had said yes. I would be interested to know more before actually participating so Carly, if you're around, please engage.

Is the phd actually related to burlesque or is the request she made just posted on that site?

"(not to ignore Mumsnetters in their 50s but as far as I know most Mumsnetters are 20s, 30s and 40s)"

Ah, thanks!

Seeing as more and more women are delaying childbirth for longer and longer, due to career/study/travel/financial and-or emotional situation/evt suitable partner etc, I don't see it as "odd" that I became a mother at 36
Hey! I know women who had their first in their 40's!

and you think that factors like ageism (or in other cases racism and sexism) have no effect at all on determining research agendas BelfastBloke? Of course they do - why would researchers be any more free from these things than anyone else?

of course there are lots of possible reasons for it but given that as women of a certain age we are fairly used to ageism in other situations, wanting to check first that it wasn't what was behind this one is not unreasonable.

How can it be ageism to have a cut-off of 35? It's not a job: it's a research project.

You shape your research based on what you are interested in.

There are any number of reasons why the cut-off should be 18-35. (Or, indeed, 15-25. Or 25-40. Or 12-85). And in a PhD thesis she will have to justify them, and defend them, to her (presumably feminist) scholarly peers and examiners.

Ahh didn't look at those links! [slinks away quietly]

[comes back having read]

Nope still agree with Dittany!