A recognition-based study of frustrations, risks, and navigation in career transition among educationally disadvantaged young women

Abstract

This study examined the career transition journey of educationally disadvantaged young women from a recognition perspective in the context of risk society. By means of purposive sampling, 12 young women aged between 18 and 24 who had dropped out from junior or senior secondary school were sampled basing on their social status and family’s socioeconomic status. With the use of thematic analysis, the study thoroughly examined 12 transcripts collected from individual interviews. The results showed the career transition journey of the participants in five distinctive aspects, namely, (1) striving for recognition, confronting and managing misrecognition, and sustaining life other than seeking recognition or managing misrecognition; (2) experiencing misrecognition encompassing deprivation of social support, victimization, agency undermining, esteem diminution, and distorted/manipulative recognition; (3) using recognition-based strategies to navigate career transition including social support based on satisfying affective and tangible needs, respect on the basis of equal rights and duties, and expanding sources of esteem by resuming schooling, attending interest-aligned training, caring for others, and/or excelling at work; (4) keeping a distance from manipulative or distorted recognition givers as being helpful to manage misrecognition; and (5) seeking survival, fun, exposure or sensation may help sustain life or attract more devastating risks. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence to inform the delivery of well-targeted career support services for young women with educational disadvantage.