Barbara Merrill

• 1. Gender Issues in Adult and Higher Education: Concepts, Perspectives and Research. 2. Drawing on Theory: Combining Action, Structure and Feminism. 3. Researching Women’s Lives: Interviews as Life Histories. 4. Warwick University: Culture, Context and Community. 5. Connecting the Past with the Present: The Impact of Education, Gender and Class. 6. Employment, Domesticity and the Quest for Fulfilment. 7. Learning a Mature Student Career: Adjustment and Consolidation. 8. Experiencing University Life: Intersections of Public and Private Worlds. 9. Present and Future Biographies: Changing Lives and Future Hopes. 10. Transforming Women’s Lives: Education as Empowerment?

’A fascinating exploration of the connection between the public and private lives of women - and a few men - and the impact that later life study at an elite university has on them.’ Chris Duke, President of the University of Western Sydney Nepean and Professor of Lifelong Learning, Australia ’...a useful addition to the literature of discipline history, as well as of mature student experience.’ Studies in the Education of Adults ’...a useful contribution to the sociology of adult education...I would recommend this book as a useful contribution to the literature of adult education and to the debate on gender, class and higher education for academics and post-graduate students.’ British Journal of Educational Psychology