An Intergenerational Study of Three Gifted Women: Obstacles and challenges confronting women of high potential.

This intergenerational, narrative study focused upon obstacles and challenges confronting three gifted women in three generations in the same family. The investigation involved educational and career choices, personal aspirations of achievement and success, education, decision making, and quality of life satisfaction of these three women. Semi-structured interviews were used as the primary source of data. Generalizations were derived from major themes and categories and were constructed based upon the constant-comparative analyses of data and case study methodologies. Findings include the importance of the following to gifted women: role models, education, personal satisfaction, decision making, being good, attributes of work, and double messages. Issues that interfered with reaching full potential were: providing for basic needs of family, children, work, and others; the role of personal satisfaction as a quality of life; and the ability to accommodate wants, needs, and expectations of others.

For many years, researchers have been studying the lives and contributions to society of those identified as gifted in order to learn more about the nature of giftedness and forms of talent (Gardner, 1983; Hulbert & Schuster, 1993; Subotnik, 1992; Terman & Oden, 1959). Giftedness has been investigated through observations, shared insights, personal experiences, products or exhibitions, events, and measures of intelligence and achievement. Studies of gifted individuals have been conducted to determine what happens to them over their life spans (Feldman & Goldsmith, 1986; Sears & Barbee, 1977; Silverman & Conarton, 1993; Terman & Oden, 1959). In addition, public recognition is often extended to those who exhibit characteristics of giftedness in terms of what society interprets as recognizable accomplishments and contributions (Reis, 1991; Sherman, 1976; Shurkin, 1992; Subotnik, Karp, & Morgan, 1989; Terman & Oden, 1959).

Throughout history, powerless individuals and groups in society have been minority populations and those without voices, including individuals with low social and economic status and women. Women are included in this population of powerless people because of their social position relative to males, their lack of access to jobs and wages comparable to males, the structure of the family, demands of nurturing children, lack of access to equal educational opportunities within society, and their silent voices (Garrison, 1993; Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan, Lyons, & Hanmer, 1990; Hulbert & Schuster, 1993; McLaughlin, Melber, Billy, Zimmerle, Winges, & Johnson, 1988; Nelton & Berney, 1987; Schaef, 1985; Shurkin, 1992). Within this population of recognized, gifted individuals, gifted women have been excluded to a large degree for their contributions and accomplishments because societal rules restrict women's opportunities and achievements within society's structure.

In 1988, the Jacob K. Javit's Gifted and Talented Students Education Act funded a research report, Setting An Agenda: Research Priorities for the Gifted and Talented Through the Year 2000 (Renzulli, Reis, & Gubbins, 1990), which identified four major special populations which a national research agenda should address (Renzulli, Reis, & Gubbins, 1990): underachieving students, gifted females, economically disadvantaged students, and dropouts and at risk students. Gifted females hold prominent places in each of the other three research areas.

Even though polls today demonstrate there are more women in the work force, more women obtaining college degrees, and more women hired in higher paying jobs, studies also demonstrate that trying to balance home, children, work, and economic demands remains a difficult problem for women of any age (Arnold, 1993; Orlans & Wallace, 1994; Walker & Mehr, 1992). Personal goals often are compromised for the sake of family and other responsibilities, and lost opportunities become the norm as women fail to pursue original goals. Hollinger and Fleming (1992) studied career choices made by gifted young women. Their examination revealed that at age 29, young women "have yet to achieve the educational, career, and lifestyle aspirations they identified in adolescence" (p. 207). Arnold (1987) noted similar results from her study of high school valedictorians when women, by their sophomore year in college, had already compromised their original career goals for goals perceived as easier to attain and more able to fit in with their perceptions of the multiple roles they would have as wives and mothers. Conditions such as these can limit women's realization of their potential, and, if recognition does occur, it may come late in life (Heilbrun, 1979; Rubin, 1994). In 1926, Hollingworth noted special problems of gifted women:

   "the woman question" is how to reproduce the species and at the same time
   to work, and realize work's full reward, in accordance with individual
   ability. This is a question primarily of the gifted, for the discontent
   with and resentment against women's work have originated chiefly among
   women exceptionally well endowed with intellect. (pp. 348-349)

Silverman (1989) observed that "Sixty-three years later, we are still faced with the same problems Hollingworth wrote about and are still left to our own devices to find the solutions (p. 97)."

The present study focused upon obstacles and challenges that confronted three generations of gifted women in the same family. It was an investigation of educational and career choices, personal aspirations of achievement and success, and quality of life. The primary purposes of the study were to: allow gifted women within the same family from three different generations to reflect upon and describe personal experiences which affected achievement, motivation, personal and career aspirations, and choices over their life spans; to determine which educational practices and family and personal decisions made significant quality of life differences for them over time; and, to establish a framework for discussing socio-cultural issues affecting the lives of gifted women over three generations and to develop general theoretical statements about those issues.

Method

In recent years, methods of research allowing women to express their voices have become more acceptable. Moreover, as qualitative studies have been matched with feminist research, several methods and methodologies have been found effective in studying women and issues of women (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Fonow & Cook, 1991; Gluck & Patai, 1991; Heilbrun, 1988; Krall, 1988; Reinharz, 1992) including the use of narrative form and case study methods, and constant comparative methodologies. These are all incorporated into the present intergenerational study of gifted women. Case study as a research method was used to support the documentation of women's lives and achievements, and to "reveal the frameworks of meaning through which individuals locate themselves in the world and make sense of their lives" (Barbre, Farrell, Garner, Geiger, Joeres, Lyons, Maynes, Mittlefehldt, & Steinhagen, 1989, p. 22). Constant comparative methodology was used to uncover patterns in data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Merriam, 1988). The constant comparative method allowed basic descriptive categories to be developed as they became relevant to the study (Merriam, 1988). Generalizations were derived from major themes and categories and were constructed based upon the data analysis.

Data for the intergenerational study were collected from interviews with the three participants, notes taken during interviews, observations, interview tapes, and memorabilia. Semi-structured interviews allowed conversations to develop between participants and researcher. Reinharz (1992) noted the importance of conversation in feminist methodology since conversation illustrates how knowledge is socially constructed, tentative and emergent. The narrative, or story form, was used to document how the women in this study perceived their world, and gave voice to the historic silencing of women as active participants in the research process.

Procedure

In the process of examining the lives of three women in the same family over three generations and approximately 75 years, the stories they told were separated into a network of categories and properties (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Category headings emerged during data analysis and reduction, and incidents embedded in the context of transcripts were used as vignettes in the analysis. Properties were used to separate and categorize data statement by statement. Theoretical properties for the category Wants and Needs included the important role of education in the lives of these three women, and the need to increase their own value as human beings. Data analysis methods focused upon inductive rather than deductive thinking (Merriam, 1988). Several levels of analysis occurred as meaningful categories for interpreting data surfaced during the constant comparison of data. Categories and incidents from the data reduction process were compared with stories and findings from other studies of women's lives over time (Arnold, 1987; Orlans & Wallace, 1994; Sears & Barbee, 1977; Walker & Mehr, 1992).

Participants

Participants in this study are representative of three generations of well-educated, high ability women and were known to the researcher only as a result of this study.(1) Grandmother Bea, the first of three generations, was a participant in the original Terman study of giftedness (Terman, 1925). She was a teacher, continued her education throughout her life, became a single parent of two young daughters by mid-life, and is now retired. Representing the second generation of women is Carrie, the living daughter of the grandmother. She is an educator, became a single parent in mid-life, and to date has raised and supported two children while continuing her own education. The granddaughter, Lisa, representing the third generation of gifted women in this study, was in her early twenties at the time of the study. She graduated from high school at the end of her junior year and studied abroad on a full scholarship for what would have been her senior year. Following graduation, she worked for a period of time prior to enrolling in a small liberal arts college. The participants in this study have the following in common: evidence of intellectual giftedness, potential for high academic achievement, and education as an important role in their lives. They were interviewed over a period of three and a half years. The initial question posed to each woman was to "tell about your life."

Grandmother Bea was the first woman to graduate from college in her family. Her father had little formal education. Her mother, known to be a very intelligent woman, finished high school. Grandmother Bea attended a state teacher's college on a scholarship and worked to pay her own way. At the end of her junior year, she was elected president of her senior class. A decision to marry the summer following her junior year precluded her ability to continue in school. Instead, she began work in a war-time munitions facility.

Grandmother Bea's oldest daughter, representing the second generation woman in this study, was born that year while her husband was in overseas service. At the end of World War II, Grandmother Bea and her husband decided to complete their education. While in school, Grandmother Bea worked full time as a secretary; her husband did not work, and as she told me, I worked and went to school and was a mother...and I got my degree and he got his. On several occasions, Grandmother Bea was seriously discriminated against in college. In one class her grades were lowered because the professor believed her husband had helped her with her work, and in another a grade of B+ was recorded instead of the A+ her professor had given her because she was married and probably would never use the education.

Upon graduation, Grandmother Bea began her career in teaching. She loved teaching, but once again she worked full time and handled child care and family responsibilities while her husband attended graduate school. She taught several years before she took her young daughter, left her husband, and obtained a divorce. Another daughter, born to Grandmother Bea from a second marriage, died tragically at the age of 24.

Throughout two marriages, two divorces and her own career, Grandmother Bea was primarily responsible for the economic, emotional, and physical well-being of her children and several other family members, including a twin sister, a younger sister, a brother, and her parents. As her daughters grew up, Grandmother Bea ingrained in their thinking the need for a good education or trade skill, "cause you need to be able to take care of yourself."

In her early fifties, Grandmother Bea was disabled in a car accident and had to retire from public school teaching. In the following years, she accumulated 30 additional hours of graduate credit to prepare herself for volunteer work with domestic violence assistance programs. Domestic violence and emotional abuse were familiar to Grandmother Bea since she experienced both during her married years. During her retirement, Grandmother Bea gave presentations regarding all forms of child abuse and children's rights as victims to teachers, other professional groups, parent-teacher organizations, and junior high and high school students. She was also responsible for training staff members of women's shelters and area colleges about domestic violence and abuse. At the age of 66, Grandmother Bea left active volunteer work to care for a friend who was terminally ill.

Carrie, the second generation woman in this study was born during World War II. Prior to graduating from high school, she lived in four different states. When Carrie began school, she tested so high on readiness tests that she skipped kindergarten and was placed in first grade. Her first grade teacher called Carrie's mother within the first six weeks of first grade and spoke about how high Carrie tested. She felt Carrie was a gifted child. During high school, Carrie was identified as a National Merit Scholar. Her grades were average to good throughout her school years, and she took classes at a local junior college during high school. Her school counselors were unaware of any special ability Carrie had until well into her senior year. According to Carrie, No one ever sat down with me and really led me into career choices or directions.

At the time of her marriage, shortly after high school graduation and at the request of her husband, Carrie went to work to support her new family while her husband worked on his graduate degree. They were married on a Saturday, spent Sunday with family, and were in a different state on Monday so her new husband could attend class. As expected, I went out dutifully and found a job right away. I'm not sure I did anything that year except work and be a good wife.

This work pattern continued for many years. Carrie and her husband moved several times, and each time, Carrie would apply for admission to the new college or university her husband attended and would pursue course work as she was able. She acknowledged that her personal expectations were non-existent or way too low, and that with every move of her husband's, she had to wait a year for residence to afford tuition. She indicated that they never looked at alternatives to waiting for residence status for her, or that we could have taken out student loans and both gone to school.

Eventually, Carrie focused her course work on a two year degree, and began taking classes--one a semester. She continued to work full time, and finally obtained her Associate of Arts degree. Carrie used a small amount of money from her grandfather's estate to pay for her college expenses, It only took me about eight years to get a bachelor's degree, and I felt pretty darn proud of myself. During this time, one of her professors encouraged her to continue her education and suggested Carrie might want to go to graduate school. The belief this professor expressed in her and in her ability to go to graduate school changed the course of Carrie's life:

   She [the professor] was the first person that I ever saw as a role model
   and she was the first person that had ever seen anything in me. She was an
   amazing woman...I never thought of going on beyond my bachelor's degree and
   she was the first person that suggested that I could do it.

After the birth of her two children, a son and a daughter, Carrie continued as the primary wage earner and child care provider for her family because her husband believed, his education and work were more important than hers. Her husband was brilliant but did not work for long periods of time. When she and her husband divorced, their children were in elementary school. Carrie told me: He kind of just disappeared. She received no child support and had to raise the kids on her own. When Carrie lost her home for lack of ability to continue paying for it, she and her children moved to another part of the country where she had been accepted in a doctoral program, and she asked me: So why am I trying to get a degree, you know it doesn't make any sense.

In the 24 years following her high school graduation, due to family moves, Carrie attended seven higher education institutions and held 30 different professional jobs in three states and a common wealth. A major part of her professional life was spent in writing and publishing, either alone or with another person. When she became a single mother of two children, Carrie felt economically and personally repressed, and she felt there were things that did not allow her to move ahead:

   When you are totally responsible for a household it is very difficult to
   compete for scholarships. I couldn't afford to take my kids to a doctor...
   some of my professors expected more from me. I felt they were trying to
   weed out the single women heads of households. I don't know if I will
   finish my doctoral work. I realize women are never good enough, they get
   worn out. What women value is not valued at the university. We are
   concerned with people.

After converting her intended doctoral degree to a specialists degree, Carrie became a media specialist and teacher. Her daughter and youngest child had just turned 18.

Lisa, the young woman from the third generation celebrated her 21st birthday during the course of this study. Living with her mother as a child, she was able to spend six years in the same place until they lost their home. Lisa was identified for gifted education programs by the time she was in the third grade. She did well in school but memories of her elementary school days reminded her of hurtful experiences:

   Elementary school was overall very positive...but there were things that
   were important to me as a child, that I wasn't fitting in, that I didn't
   have friends, that I wasn't invited places, all of those things that really
   bothered me as a child. I would go home crying every day and would talk to
   my mom. And she would have parent/teacher conferences all the time with my
   teachers and they would say Lisa was one of their best students.

Lisa loved her elementary independent study program and referred to it as a model that high schools should follow. Lisa described high school as a joke and said she got A's because honors teachers have certain expectations of their students and if you know what those are, it doesn't matter how gifted you are or not, you write what they want to hear. The teachers she described as being important to her were those who made learning meaningful because of what they expected her to learn, the way they taught, and the way they related to her as a student. One of her teachers spent time after school with Lisa:

   I would tell her about things in my personal life, and about my family, and
   she was always very accepting and always very good to me, very listening
   you know, a listening kind of a person.

By her sophomore year, Lisa was so discouraged with high school that she demanded a counselor either help her get out of school early or she would quit. After that she arranged independent study classes that allowed her to move ahead with her studies and fulfilled her high school credits by the time she was 16. Lisa heard about the scholarship opportunity to study abroad from the school announcements and was one of 60 applicants in the region to apply. She was also one of two students who received the award. Lisa's experiences in Europe had a great impact on her life and led her to a greater state of personal independence.

Times, were tough at home. Lisa s mother was trying to complete a doctorate degree but also had to work and care for her children. As a child, Lisa was known to be very sensitive to her family and to their needs, especially to her mother's needs. Even though her mother wanted her to go to college, Lisa did not want to place additional financial burdens on her family or herself at that time. Upon her return from Europe, Lisa opted to take two jobs to help her family and to exert her own independence. Her jobs were an experience in finding out that a woman without a college education in the work force was not treated the same as a man with the same educational attainment. In her climb to a dead end position as an assistant store manager, Lisa said: It wasn't that they were against females in the work place or anything, it was a matter of them being intimidated by me being so young, uneducated, and female. Lisa eventually began work as a chef's apprentice with a major hotel chain. Several years later, she began taking college classes. By the time she was 22, Lisa left college and began working for the organization that supported her year in Europe when she was 16 years old.

Results

There are several major obstacles and challenges confronting women of high potential that surfaced in the course of this research. Included are issues related to responsibility, decision making and unplanned lives, disenfranchisement, wants, needs, quality of life, and internal understanding of themselves. In each generation, wishful thinking appeared as silent or voiced recognition of wants and needs; personal needs were placed on hold in favor of providing for the basic needs of family, children, work, and others; personal satisfaction was derived from accommodating the basic needs of family, children, work, and others; quality of life was equated to personal satisfaction; and responsibility for taking care of wants, needs, and expectations of others interfered with the ability to reach one's potential. Common threads across generations included struggling with socio-cultural expectations, resisting cultural constraints, and finding personal resilience and strength to handle responsibilities.

Categories

Responsibility concerned the caring and nurturing of family, home, and others. Women's work was identified with social-cultural expectations.

For each woman, responsibility meant being good, meeting expectations, providing love, personal security, education, medical care, the roof overhead, food, clothing and care for family. According to the women in this study, these were the most important needs they experienced.

Grandmother Bea noted: I internalize things. It's taking responsibility in some way for everything that happens. Accepting responsibility meant being good to Grandmother Bea: I was raised to be a good little girl, and good little girls don't do that. Caring for others was a way of life, an expectation. Grandmother Bea noted, I can fight real hard for people's rights, women's rights, kid's rights, victim's rights, but I find it hard to stand up for my own. Carrie observed: The home front was my first responsibility, my education was kind of down there as I had time. Carrie continued on to say: My whole life has been wrapped up in other people's needs. Lisa explained, When it got to expressing my own wants and what I was going to do on my own, it got really hard ... like I said, I'm very responsible, I meet expectations. Carrie linked all three generations as she recognized generational similarities: I certainly see in this grouping of my mother, myself, and my daughter that kind of idealism of always committing to causes.

Decisions often were unplanned and played a major role in life for each generation woman. Decisions often were not well-thought-out, were made when something had to be done, and often were painful and attributed to luck.

Making decisions by default, avoiding decisions, and feeling fortunate about decisions attributed to other people or situations reflected unplanned lives in all three generations of women.

Women in this study made decisions based upon expectations of their parents, family, and others. For the woman in the third generation, Lisa noted:

   Everything in life is based on a decision making process. Sometimes I just
   get so confused, you know decisions are not just clear cut. I have a really
   hard time with some of the simplest ones.

In making decisions, Lisa commented that she simply blocked out things when she did not want to deal with them. Carrie in the second generation acknowledged that a decision made for the sake of convenience resulted in an unintended career path. As for an original career goal, there wasn't one. Carrie said she kind of fell into things.

   After my husband finished his course work, he had field work to do. I moved
   back to the valley by myself and met someone I had gone to high school
   with. We didn't know each other very well, but her husband was in the
   service overseas, so I moved in with her. We took several classes together
   and I got my two year degree. My friend was transferring in to get her
   bachelor's degree so I decided to do that. My friend also decided to major
   in English, so I decided to major in English, too, because we could
   carpool. Parking was very tight. That's why I majored in English. It was
   not a well-thought-out plan.

Grandmother Bea thought herself lucky when she went to college on a fluke, because a male student declined a scholarship and it was given to her. She never considered that she had earned the scholarship. When Grandmother Bea felt she didn't have a choice or couldn't make a decision, she told me: You just rolled with the blows. Grandmother Bea felt her life was forever changed by her quick decision to quit college and to marry.

Disenfranchisement was affected by mixed messages, recognition given to others, silent voices, the perception of being less smart or less able, and having work perceived as less important because you were a woman. These messages, embedded in socio-cultural expectations, devalued each woman's role in life.

Due to the level of commitment necessary to support basic needs of family, and to voices that were silent to personal needs and feelings, each woman noted the unfairness of life. Unequal treatment of women was recognized as a major issue.

Depriving women of the right to feel good about their intelligence, abilities, achievements, opportunities, responsibilities, basic needs, education, and work made them feel and appear powerless as women. Each woman learned that who she was and what she was capable of doing was defined by others. Culture defined the values and beliefs of these women and also taught them that it would be selfish to think of their own needs. As Carrie stated: You survive because you have to, there's no way out.

After supporting her first husband all the way through school, in addition to being a full time parent and obtaining her own degree, Grandmother Bea spoke of putting her life on hold for her husband. Carrie, in the second generation, worked to put her husband through school and obtained her degree in less time than her husband. She was told by her husband, however, that her degree in library science was not in a real science [and] of less importance. Lisa, in the third generation, acknowledged that at work, men who did not have college degrees were promoted faster than women with the same educational background: To be promoted as a woman you had to have an education. You had to have those pieces of paper to prove you were worthy. From Lisa's view, the experiences of her grandmother and mother before her were things she was aware of as a child. The fact that they just kept plowing on and just kept going she believed came from their personal qualities: Part of it is like you are tested by your lot in life.

Wants and needs dealt with issues of survival and security and were attached to things such as home and the ability to provide for children and family members.

To the women in this study, life was difficult. Across generations, they faced each day with a need to assure survival for those who depended upon them. Each woman looked at education and continuing education as a measure of increasing self-worth. In addition, each woman functioned at a basic need level while providing for the needs of children, families, extended family members, and others, which precluded focusing time and energy on personal well-being.

Wants were reflected in three major ways: What I want, what others want, and what I don't want. Needs were reflected as "my needs," the "needs of members of my family," and the "needs of others." A need for stability and security caused Lisa to reflect on her dreams:

   For a long time, since I was about thirteen, I started dreaming about a
   house. I dream about the house, think about the house, and in the house I
   feel really protected and really safe. Maybe that is [my] abstract
   reference to security.

Carrie wanted life to be not such a struggle, and like her mother, raised her family far from other family members:

   My whole life has been wrapped up in other people's needs. I haven't had an
   emotional or physical support system. I've always been the one that's kept
   things together.

Carrie's story was reiterated by Grandmother Bea when she told me, I think it is hard for women who have had to make it on their own for whatever reason Then there was the day Carrie asked me:

   Do you ever ask yourself why you are doing this? I've been thinking, it's
   1991! I graduated from high school 30 years ago, and here I am only at this
   point in my life.

In a phone conversation not too long before a visit to Grandmother Bea in 1991, I asked her how she was able to see her way through troubled times by herself. She didn't answer me at the time, but when I saw her later she responded to my question: Well honey, I wonder too, you know.

Empowerment was a need for each generation woman, and education was considered empowering. In the first generation, Grandmother Bea wanted her daughter to have independence and an education so she could take care of herself someday. In the second generation, Carrie spoke of her grandmother who always told her, The one thing no one can take away from you is your education. In her own life, feelings of intellectual competence were in jeopardy: I thought by getting a degree I would make [my husband] proud of me. Carrie's sadness, was that her husband did not seem to think her graduation much of an accomplishment. Because of her experiences, Carrie surrounded her daughter with a lot of independent, well-educated role models. Lisa, in the third generation wanted that independence and was empowered by knowing she learned easily and quickly. Lisa made note several times of the third grade teacher who had her tested for the gifted program and how important that program had been to her education.

Quality of life represented the positive strokes that contributed to satisfaction and happiness. Quality of life was evidenced in personal satisfaction, enjoyment, pride, and success; however, the women did not often use these words to describe their lives.

Quality of life was a subtle reference interpreted through the context in which words were spoken. Taking care of others provided personal satisfaction for all three women because it represented doing something perceived as good and responsible. For the women in all three generations, happiness was represented by personal satisfaction and found vicariously through helping and caring for others, meeting expectations, and through educational accomplishments.

Compliments about her work as a teacher provided happiness and satisfaction for Grandmother Bea. Being able to say they couldn't replace me as a teacher gave her great satisfaction and happiness. Knowing she could take a class of first graders that other teachers couldn't handle and change not only their behavior, but their willingness to learn, represented personal satisfaction. Taking pride in the accomplishments of her students gave Carrie great pride and personal satisfaction. Happiness and satisfaction with the decisions of her children contributed to Carrie's satisfaction with life. Lisa interpreted a personal standard of living as quality of life: I think personal satisfaction is number one because after that everything else comes. If you are not personally satisfied, nothing else will ever make you happy. Grandmother Bea was content in knowing she had done a good job in a field she loved. Carrie focused on work that was personally satisfying. At the age of 48, Carrie shared these thoughts: I have to ask the question why people do what they do ... It has to be for why we ever want to do it.

Financial gain was not considered critical to life satisfaction. Each woman worried about having enough money to pay bills and to survive, but as Carrie noted: Money is not so important as doing the things I enjoy and being with people I care about. For Lisa being able to take care of herself took very little money. Grandmother Bea recognized the hard times, but what was important to her was knowing she had food on the table for her family and clothes for them to wear. Each woman admitted that she did not want to have to worry about money, but money was not as important as doing what made her happy.

Internal understanding of self reflected the ability of each woman in each generation to speak about things she sensed, felt, or knew, without knowing how she knew.

Internal understanding of self reflected the need for each woman in each generation to maintain personal and family pride and to exert her independence. The three women were quite frank about their beliefs. They expected to pay their own way in life, they did not want to inflict their problems on others, they did want to stand on their own two feet, and they felt responsible for each other. At the age of 18, Grandmother Bea told her father she would never ask him for another cent because she was an adult and on her own. Carrie set out across country for a new life for herself and her two children with $500 to her name. Lisa told me: I don't like to have things given to me. I am a person who does not ask for anything ... I would rather try to do it myself. Making their own way and standing up for their own rights were seen as matters of internal and personal strength within each generation.

Grandmother Bea noted: I feel this link. We are linked whether we like it or not, you know sometimes we'd rather not be. But this link is a link to all humanity ... and to all living things. We could call it spirituality. Carrie spoke of her sense of intuition: I tend to be very intuitive ... I can sense things but I don't know how I do it. In the third generation, Lisa spoke of internal understanding of self as a recognition of the heart. She went on to say:

   There are certain things no one ever had to tell me. They are things I've
   just always known. I can't tell you when I was able to form them into a
   sentence, but there were just certain things about people, about life, that
   I didn't even have to experience to know. Like the first time I experienced
   it, it was like a physical reality that brings something to a different
   level of consciousness.

Discussion

Maslow (1968) assigned the role of basic to needs for food, clothing, and shelter and placed them at the lowest end of a hierarchy of six levels of needs. Needs for personal safety and love he identified at levels two and three. Self-actualization and transcendence appear at the high end of Maslow's (1968) six levels of needs. Maslow (1968), however, stated that if needs at any one level are unmet, energy will focus at that level and prevent or delay ascendance to a higher level or a state of self-actualization. Since security and survival were basic needs to the gifted women in this study, Maslow's theory helps to explain the larger issue of wants and needs. Since responsibility and caring for and nurturing others was identified with social-cultural expectations, it is important to note that Wood (1994) determined women over time defined "a basis for worthiness that is different from that which the dominant culture bestows" (p. 39), and identified caring for others as a culturally legitimated identity for women. In this sense, each woman in this study helped optimize the human potential of others through care-giving, which contributed to her own ability to feel self-actualized, even though she functioned at what Maslow referred to as a very basic level of need in providing for the basic needs of her family and self (Clark, 1983). Critical to this issue however, is the interpretation of women's work, which is not limited to women born in the 1920s or to those born in the 1950s or 1960s. Research conducted in the 1990s clearly shows the trend continuing, as pointed out by Kaschak (1992) in her summary of research:

   The generation of women currently coming of age ... must make a man's
   career for themselves while also mothering their children and taking
   primary responsibility for household chores. (pp. 163-164)

According to several studies, including this intergenerational study, women make decisions based upon expectations of parents, family, others, luck, and lack of choice; their decisions are often unplanned (Hulbert & Schuster, 1993; Langston, 1993; Orlans & Wallace, 1994; Walker & Mehr, 1992). In addition, the silent messages of wishful thinking and helplessness were noted in each generation in this study: I want to be successful. I want to be proud of myself. I wanted to make him proud of me. I dream about ... I can fight for the rights of others but not for myself. Some people have a gift of ability. You have to fight to stay strong. I hope they can see. You have to be good to be recognized.

An issue related to unplanned decisions that emerged from this study was lack of counseling for women in any of the three generations. Counseling across generations was basically non-existent and contributed to unplanned careers and unplanned decisions. It became quite clear that the gifted women in this study faced socio-cultural expectations that limited their ability to seek help. According to Mulqueen (1992):

   One of the inherent contradictions facing American women today is the
   conflict between an innate motivation to be competent and the existing
   pattern of sex-role socialization which relegates women's expression of
   competence to spheres devalued by society. (p. 1)

All three women in this study acknowledged the existence of unequal treatment and mixed messages in their lives because they were women. They adjusted to these inequities with quiet resilience. Education was expressed as a need and was perceived as providing independence and security. It has been noted that secure, self-sufficient, successful, self-actualized women are not commonly found in and supported by our society (Clark, 1983; Mulqueen, 1992; Reis, 1995). Noble (1989) determined "self doubt" as "the primary obstacle inhibiting the development of [a gifted woman's] potential" (p. 136).

As the researcher for this study, what I found so remarkable was the women's extraordinary resilience of spirit, creativity, honesty, integrity, passion, and enthusiasm. I also found remarkable their capacity for insight and the openness they brought to the experience of life. However, the gifted women in each generation of this study, as in other studies, internally denied, or did not recognize they were gifted despite years of evidence to the contrary.

Conclusions

In response to the purposes of this study and critical to the happiness of the gifted women in this study is the issue of personal satisfaction. Personal satisfaction, equated to quality of life, was the primary motivator that affected all other aspects of life. Education became an act of empowerment; however, career aspirations were confined or reduced to those traditional to women. The manner in which decisions were made by each woman in this study was significant to her quality of life, but no one can say what might have occurred had other decisions been made.

This study has provided a framework for discussing socio-cultural issues affecting the lives of gifted women over three generations. As the study proceeded, it became evident that the systematic analysis of data as well as the multiple-research methods used were essential in determining the findings and summarizing the conclusions. In this process, I found no evidence of contradictions to the literature. I found evidence, however, of three major obstacles and challenges confronting gifted women to be included in the literature. These include, the need to place on hold personal wants and needs in favor of providing for the needs of family, children. and others; the importance of education as an indication of personal empowerment and independence; and the important role of personal satisfaction equated to internal feelings of quality of life satisfaction.

Implications

Continued research of gifted women will help expand and clarify issues cited here as they are interpreted to a broader audience. The literature of research on women is full of rich, documented stories and narratives but these studies are idiosyncratic. There is a need for women in research to connect studies with studies. Additional generational studies of gifted women would add to the literature and help to develop a more comprehensive theoretical framework regarding obstacles and challenges that affect their lives over time. Intergenerational studies of women in general, or gifted women in particular, should be designed so researchers have opportunities to focus on certain issues critical to quality of life for women and should be expanded to include women in other locations, cultures, socio-economic, and ethnic groups.

As shown in this study, women's lives are socio-culturally determined. In this respect each woman's story can become every woman's story. Throughout the context of this intergenerational study of three gifted women in the same family, meaning was found in the minds and hearts of its participants as their stories unfolded. As a result, this study has potential to enlighten and enrich the lives of other gifted women who face socio-cultural obstacles and challenges that affect the quality of their lives.

(1) The names in this study are pseudonyms, adopted to protect the anonymity of the participants.

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Janice Bizzari is the Principal of University Elementary School, Monroe County Community School Corporation, Bloomington, Indiana. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education at Indiana University Bloomington with areas of specialization in gifted education and curriculum and instruction.

Manuscript submitted February, 1997.

Revision accepted February, 1998.