Parallel lives? working class Muslim and non Muslim women at university
This thesis seeks to explore how experiences of class are mediated by positions of faith and ethnicity. Currently in the UK, class is gaining increased attention within the disciplines of sociology and women's studies. However, faith and ethnicity have been absent from these debates and the vast majority of qualitative studies on class have focussed on white British people, with the experiences of minority ethnic/religious groups largely ignored. In order to move debates on class and its intersections forward, this thesis critically analyses class identity in a comparative perspective as experienced by Muslim and non Muslim women. Based on interviews and a focus group with 18 Muslim and 11 non Muslim women, I interrogate the way in which positions of faith and ethnicity influence class experiences and identity for northern women from working class backgrounds at university. Using feminist engagement with a Bourdieusian theoretical framework, I discuss the similar and different experiences of class for the two groups of women, concentrating on themes of individual, family and community. Using concepts of class capitals and habitus, I analyse the decisions made about higher education (including course, institution and residential status) and experiences of university, centring on `fitting in' to `university life' and the balance between studying and employment. Analysing plans for the future, I focus on residential status, career and partnership, and I also explore the women's accounts of class mobility in relation to notions of past, present and future. The central difference between the two groups of women is that the non Muslim women saw education as a way to `escape' their working class lives and localities, whereas university for the Muslim women was a strategy for upward mobility for families as a whole.