Mid-life women doctoral students rediscover "voice" in a community of scholarly caring

Recent research indicates that doctoral study is for many "an excessively painful rite of passage" for which an "indefensible human price is exacted." For mid-life women doctoral students in nursing and education doctoral programs, this human price is sometimes paid in the currency of loss of personal voice. Because they often assume leadership positions after graduation, it is a significant loss to the professions when these women's mature voices are lost or even temporarily silenced. This article describes the design, findings, evaluation, and implications of an emancipatory inquiry entitled "Gifted Women: Doctoral Study As Heroic Journey." Simultaneously a participatory research project and curricular innovation, this unique 18-month project joined facilitators and participants as coresearchers in a workshop and four reunions that integrated feminist process with expressive, esthetic approaches. The results of this emancipatory inquiry showed that viewing doctoral study as a heroic journey enlightened these mid-life women participants to reclaim their personal voices, empowered them with the support of a community of scholarly caring, and emancipated them to undertake personally meaningful and scholarly dissertation research.