Abstract:
This paper utilises Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of bodily hexis and habitus to explore the interrelationship between gender, class and ethnicity in the construction of a sense of identity amongst Australian female educational leaders.
In particular, it focuses on one of the key themes which arose from interviews conducted in 2000 with a group of tertiary women leaders from a range of class and ethnic backgrounds - the way in which the women were positioned as embodied individuals - that is, women first and leaders second. It explores the differing strategies the women adopted to accommodate, resist and at times, potentially disrupt, this construction.
In particular, it focuses on one of the key themes which arose from interviews conducted in 2000 with a group of tertiary women leaders from a range of class and ethnic backgrounds - the way in which the women were positioned as embodied individuals - that is, women first and leaders second. It explores the differing strategies the women adopted to accommodate, resist and at times, potentially disrupt, this construction.