The Lacemakers: Remembering Women's Lives

Abstract

In this thesis I explored stories women told about their own lives and identified themes related to dominant discourses that were threaded in the stories. I looked at the linked sites of social reproduction, the family and social class, as analytical frameworks of gender construction, through the lens of feminist poststructural theory. Data was obtained using collective biography and a storytelling method was also used to present findings. Taking the view that the researcher is inextricably embedded in the research I have included autobiographical stories about experiences that impacted on this work, motivated my approach or were responses to the participants' experiences and stories. This autobiographical material is found in journal, story, poetry and theoretical writing.