Persuading others: Young Roma women negotiating access to university

ABSTRACT

This article is interested in how young Roma women negotiate access to university in family and community contexts shaped by gendered expectations and conflicting roles. It is based on 37 in-depth interviews with young Roma women in Romania's higher education or recent graduates. The paper argues that Roma women need to negotiate their aspirations for constructing an ‘identity of choice’ (as argued in the individualisation theory), under a constant pressure to conform to the compelling force of social structures such as gender, ethnicity and age.

Keywords:

• gendered expectations
• higher education
• identity of choice