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The writing of poor and working-class women: Issues of personal power, self-esteem, and social class
Abstract
This study was undertaken in order to explore the writing experiences of poor and working-class, non-professional women writers and the issues of power, self-esteem, and social class. The study was focused on this population because their writing experiences had not been investigated. The study was qualitative, having a naturalistic inquiry perspective and employing in-depth, phenomenological interviewing as a method of data collection. The population for the study were five white and five Black working-class and poor women, ages twenty to seventy-five. The data were collected in a series of three audio-taped interviews. Profiles of each woman were made from the transcripts of their interviews, and these were analyzed for emerging patterns. Issues of trustworthiness were addressed in order to avoid bias. The women exhibited powerful personal voices when writing journals and letters where they were able to express their emotions as well as get things done for family members or other people in like circumstances. They experienced self-esteem when writing personal letters, fiction, and poetry. When they first tried to share their public voice in school it was an overwhelming experience of powerlessness. However, they did report success with writing on the job, and their self-esteem was generally good when they talked about their advocacy writing. One group, members of an advocacy group for the elderly, was able to make significant changes in health care for the elderly. However, all of the women still had conflicting feelings about their experiences with public voice. One function of social class was that most of the women did not finish school. The wishes and dreams they had for their lives were not realized. The writing of poor and working-class women centered around the events in their daily lives, such as: letters to teachers, politicians, those in the health care system; journaling about events in their daily lives and writing poetry. Poor and working class women should write on topics connected with their life experiences. In order to overcome problems with writing, they need the support of each other collectively, both privately and publicly.
Subject Area
Language arts|Womens studies
Recommended Citation
Daly, Ann Marie, "The writing of poor and working-class women: Issues of personal power, self-esteem, and social class" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9035387.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9035387