Abstract

This paper draws on research conducted with thirty-nine self-identified working-class and middle-class women who work and study in the field of paid caring work in order to reflect on the relevance of feminism for contemporary Australian women. It examines variations in women’s attitudes to feminism by comparing and contrasting the narratives of women from different class and educational backgrounds and it explores the role of education in disseminating feminist knowledge. Moreover, this paper examines in detail the attitudes that women in senior posts in the paid caring field have to feminism; and examines whether feminism has played a role in their career success. Finally, this paper draws on the findings to put forward an argument for a Bourdieusian conceptualisation of the value of feminism. It is suggested that the contemporary relevance of feminism might be better understood if it is reconceptualised as capital; for this enables feminism to be seen as an everyday cultural resource for women.