Partners in Achievement: How Female Undergraduates Conceptualize Intimate Relationships

• In Event: Gendered Relationships in College Contexts

Abstract

Past research suggests that female undergraduates have faced educational cultures in which their college experience is defined through romantic or sexual experiences. This study expands this literature by investigating how heightened achievement expectations for female undergraduates inform their broader conceptions of intimate relationships, by asking the following research question: How do high-achieving female undergraduates conceptualize ideal intimate relationships? Through an inductive, qualitative analysis of 76 semi-structured interviews, I find that study participants reject gendered narratives of romance and instead preserve their achievement identities by constructing two ideal relationship logics: independent and companionate logics. I suggest that participants’ conceptions of relationships have undergone a notable inversion: participants’ constructions of ideal intimate relationships center on the maintenance of academic achievement and autonomy.

Author

• Elizabeth E. Blair, University of Wisconsin - Madison