Abstract
Laurie Cohen puts the spotlight on career theory in the context of investigating the lives of 17 women, in a Northern England city, working in a variety of differing occupational roles. She introduces the concept of ‘career imagination’ linked to identity transformation and transitions. What makes this book rather unique and fascinating is the juxtaposition of revisiting individuals’ past and present lives, drawing upon a rich tapestry of detailed narratives while also observing government policy developments that have impacted women’s lives in the early 1990s and then 20 years later.
The theme of ‘recession to recession’ is a key factor threaded throughout the book. This provides a powerful background to both foreseen and unforeseen changes in our society. For example, Cohen draws on the ideology of enterprise, changing organisations, women’s work and careers shifting way from collectivist ideals towards new individual freedoms, wealth creation and personal responsibility.
The combined policy and careers imagery approach permits the reader to ‘assimilate’, ‘transfer’ and ‘import’ the borrowing of key themes from women’s real lived experiences as a basis for critique and reflection by policymakers, academics, managers and practitioners. For example, Cohen highlights the impact of information and communications technologies (ICT), managerialism and regulatory change, personal dimensions and social attitudes that shape and influence women’s careers. When in 2010 women read their earlier transcripts, they were surprised by some of the social attitudes that underpinned those accounts and by how much these had changed in the interim period, for example, working from home and technological developments.
The current policy discourse in England of ‘an enterprise for all’ culture (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), 2015) suggests a further push towards growth in productivity through small and medium-sized companies. Clearly, gender inequalities remain within the labour market, with the United Kingdom ranked 26th in the world for gender inequality in a recent analysis (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2014). Women match or outperform men in educational attainment, and this trend will continue, with 49% of women predicted to hold a degree-level qualification by 2020 (Bosworth, 2014). There is substantial segmentation in the types of jobs that men and women do—women are more likely to be in lower-paying occupations. So, what does Cohen think needs to be done by policymakers and other key stakeholders to advance women’s careers and their added-value contribution to the UK economy? This book makes clear that many individuals will need to adapt and be resilient in managing work transitions for much longer than was customary in the past. Cohen’s critique of the political rhetoric and reality shows that entrepreneurship has not been uniformly embraced by British cities, and for the case study city, this remains an uncomfortable and uneasy cultural shift. This is not about failure of individuals to engage with a changing context, in fact the opposite occurs whereby women’s work and careers unfold in the context of evolving and unpredictable social, organisational and family structures. For a cultural shift to occur, what pre-conditions does Cohen think are necessary to bring about more flexible working and entrepreneurial approaches that will empower more women to succeed in learning and work?
Cohen’s book is grounded in a cast of 17 actors. She achieves a good balance in managing to interweave the actors’ portraits into a rich tapestry of practice, theory and research findings. An excellent example of this is found in the discussion on Marshall’s (1989) and Gallos’ (1989) calls on feminist scholars to ‘revision’ career theories on career development moving away from the androcentricity of the career literature. Cohen handles this sensitively by reflecting upon and challenging stereotypical gendered norms. She also observes women did not tell their stories of careers, but of being nurses, reflexologists, care home and hotel owner-managers, graphic designers, playground equipment manufacturers, engineering equipment distributors and so on. Many women in the study are not well placed to benefit from economic growth due to the sectors that they are working in. In order to prevent substantial loss from these workers’ experience and skills, what new organisational behaviours are needed to ensure more women have the opportunities, and take the opportunities, to re-skill or retrain?
From her research findings, she points to a gap in the careers literature on the relevance of financial security as an essential feature of what respondents did and what motivated them. Why this is the case is truly a curious question given the pervasiveness of financial concerns at every stage of individual’s career transitions. How does Cohen anticipate this being addressed now and in the future, particularly by a careers research community dominated by sociologists and psychologists? She makes us think about this and moves on to consider the lifecourse and how individuals reinvent their own concept of ‘retirement’ and the importance of others. One of the implications of Cohen’s work is surely that careers is something unbounded, punctuated with highs and lows, with many imperfections associated with ideas of rational planning and restricted choices.
Cohen’s argument for the importance of the career imagination is seductive. She is an accomplished writer, and the storyboard is well crafted. The links made to other relevant and complementary theoretical propositions are well rehearsed. The proposition that career imagination construes careers as a process, cast and recast in the flow of time and across space, is well argued. She makes strong linkages to other concepts used in sociological and social constructivist careers literature, most notably ‘career script’ ‘structural theory’ ‘habitus’. The rationale for using the term ‘imagination’ and key dimensions is clearly explained. However, the fact that Cohen does not focus on the interaction with dimensions of ethnicity, disability and age, respectively, represents a missed opportunity: information about their particular experiences is rarely available. More broadly, how does Cohen view the role of intermediaries this new careers theory, beyond traditional approaches of women supporting other women?
Despite this reservation, ‘Imagining Women’s Careers’ provides a sound analytical framework for exploring women’s career trajectories. It offers a trip down memory lane and a wake up call for those involved in careers, enterprise and employability policymaking, research and practice. From this lessons can be learned in sifting out the rhetoric and reality of employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship, particularly for women’s careers. The 17 actors’ stories are powerful reminders to anyone reading this book of the importance of enduring relationships, values and changing career identities. By examining individual learning trajectories, Cohen’s depicts a changing relationship between work and personal spheres as women move through the lifecourse. She challenges the reader to think about notions of conventional models of women’s careers. The book deserves to be read by a wide audience, in particular those studying and formulating policies and practices in careers design and delivery for the 21st century. It might also be recommended as prescribed reading for all those who train careers coaches, mentors and advisers working in a wide range of organisational and community settings.