<p>The “good girl” is today an accepted and widespread notion. It is delimited to young girls and women who are characterised to be, for example, ambitious, high performing, working too much and risks developing mental illnesses. In today’s society women are assumed to pursue their career alongside maintaining the main responsibility for the household and family. The overarching purpose of this study has been – via a hermeneutic approach and based on the theory of symbolic interactionism – to elucidate and contribute knowledge to the social role of being a “good girl” and the associated implications for a woman’s identity and career. The aim has moreover been to address the differences between the two groups of respondents: women born in the 1980s and women born in the 1960s.The study is based on six individual semi structured interviews and two group interviews. The purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of and, thereby, a better interpretation of the phenomena of “good girls”. The interviews were conducted on a sample suited to the purpose, where the younger group of respondents will have studied at least three years at the university before graduating. The older groups of respondents have studied at least four years at an academic level before taking up employment. The results show that all respondents are characterised by ambitious identities, which create conflicts between, on the one hand, how they perceive themselves and, on the one hand, how others expect them to act.</p>

The “good girl” is today an accepted and widespread notion. It is delimited to young girls and women who are characterised to be, for example, ambitious, high performing, working too much and risks developing mental illnesses. In today’s society women are assumed to pursue their career alongside maintaining the main responsibility for the household and family. The overarching purpose of this study has been – via a hermeneutic approach and based on the theory of symbolic interactionism – to elucidate and contribute knowledge to the social role of being a “good girl” and the associated implications for a woman’s identity and career. The aim has moreover been to address the differences between the two groups of respondents: women born in the 1980s and women born in the 1960s.The study is based on six individual semi structured interviews and two group interviews. The purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of and, thereby, a better interpretation of the phenomena of “good girls”. The interviews were conducted on a sample suited to the purpose, where the younger group of respondents will have studied at least three years at the university before graduating. The older groups of respondents have studied at least four years at an academic level before taking up employment. The results show that all respondents are characterised by ambitious identities, which create conflicts between, on the one hand, how they perceive themselves and, on the one hand, how others expect them to act.

The thesis follows the research stream focused on changes to the academic environment in the recent decades and their impact on academic professional paths and identities. Specifically, it is concerned with the phenomenon of attrition from academic profession which is pursued through a perspective of professional identity. We understand academic identities as an integral part of current changes to the academic environment and their study thus may help us better understand the changes as well as their influence on the development of academic ambitions. The aim of the thesis is to ascertain what kind of people and with what kind of professional identities enter and leave academia and for what reasons, and on this basis to identify barriers to the development of academic identities and paths. Special attention is paid to research field and gender aspects of the development of professional identities in order to explore the possible influence of specific structural factors (mainly field specific organization of academic production and gender specific biographies) and gain information needed for appropriate policy measures aimed at supporting professional development of early-career researchers. The analysis is based on narrative interviews with people who left academic professional path. The outcome of...