Two Autoethnographies: A Search for Understanding of Gender and Age

Abstract

The authors describe a project that illustrates the use of autoethnography as a research methodology to better understand their decisions to become professors. Strangers to one another, both authors discovered common motivations to make mid-life changes in opposition to cultural expectations. A review of the literature on epidemic theory, creativity, the women’s movement, role change, and life stage theory offer insight into the experiences that motivated them to reject their traditional cultural roles. Both also found a shared un willingness to accept invisibility, a common aspect of life for women over 40.