| This exploratory study utilized the qualitative methodology of grounded theory and was informed by critical theory, exploiting the usefulness of both theories to understand how a group of women conceptualized their experience of power.;Twenty-one women were interviewed in one to three sessions researching their experience of power. The women equated power with effectiveness, revealing power to be an inner process rather than an external force. The researcher came to understand the process which had a life of its own, as intense and complex regardless of the women's age at the time of the interview or the period of their life or others' lives to which they referred The women emphasized the subjective activity of reflection, synthesis and integration as integral to power. There was an ongoing tension between the way they understood traditional power and their alternative meaning of power as a process.;Although the study began from the outside, as a social-political view of women and power, it moved towards the inside, a psychological view of women's experience. The participants were not drawn from a clinical population, but unconscious material arose. Participants were drawn from a variety of backgrounds, economically, socially and occupationally. Despite the wealth, education and advantage some of the women possessed, all of the women had experienced extreme powerlessness and spoke with emotion of their losses. The way in which they processed their losses was emphasized.;The metaphor of power as a journey consistently emerged from material the women related. Categories within this central category of journey were included in the map. There were points of destination, departure, merging, landmarks, and tinning points. The importance of others, later labeled traveling companions, was evident throughout the process, including family of origin, partners, and others. Noteworthy among the results was the women's continued idealization of a grandmother into adulthood, regardless of the extent of their personal relationship with Grandmother. Sometimes Grandmother was only known through family stories. |
