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This paper reports on our use of a two-phased, feminist memory work in a project conducted with 11 women, social science students at an Australian university. We begin by describing government-led attempts to widen participation in Australian universities because 10 of the 11 women who participated in our project were from "non-traditional" backgrounds. We discuss qualitative group research, identifying some of the benefits and limitations of focus groups, before differentiating them from feminist memory work and analysing key findings. Using excerpts from participants' written stories and oral discussions, we analyse some of the obstacles the women faced trying to complete their studies. Our attention then turns to methodological concerns where we examine memory work as a feminist inquiry method. As second-wave feminists understood several decades ago through their use of consciousness-raising groups, we describe how we derived many benefits from using feminist memory work. The method invites deep reflection on the intersections between the personal and political and can be productive of insights about how people feel, not just think, about their experiences. A sense of solidarity can stem from this awareness amongst participants who have a chance to workshop and thus reinterpret their own stories and those of others, which can mean a growth in self-confidence and a reduction in self-blame.

In this article, we report on a feminist memory work project conducted with 11 working-class women in Australia. Participants responded to the question: "what helps and hinders working-class women study social science degrees?" The women confirmed that to succeed at university, they needed opportunities, resources, support and encouragement. We called these enablers and considered the role of "enlightened witnesses" [Miller, 1997. "The essential role of an enlightened witness in society." Retrieved from http://www.alice-miller.com/index_en.php?page=2]. Hindering the possibility of university success were detractors of many forms including inadequate resources and social conventions that discouraged the women from study. We describe saboteurs as undermining people and forces that the women had to overcome. We found that enlightened witnesses, broadly conceptualised, go some way but not all, to mitigating detractors and saboteurs that continue to hamper fair and meritocratic access to tertiary education.

Intersecting gender and other social inequalities are pertinent to women's mental health across the life course. Gendered violence and other forms of gender inequality in particular play a key role in the higher burden of psychological distress carried by young women. However, the context of gendered violence is often minimised or overlooked entirely when young women seek help or advice around mental health concerns. This is especially the case for young women under the age of 30 years. This paper reports on a research study exploring how young women in Australia understand their mental health, and the scope for new approaches to support that better address their needs. A qualitative survey undertaken with 52 Australian young women was used to explore the nature of their mental health experiences, sought to learn about the strategies they used when experiencing poor mental health and the scope for mental health peer support as an alternative approach to intervention. Responses from a diverse group of young women demonstrated that they understood the role that gendered violence and gender inequality played in their mental health. Findings point to the risk of slippage between young women's understandings of their lived experience and those of traditional service providers, demonstrating the risks associated with minimising or ignoring of the gendered nature of young women's mental health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing number of publications focusing on eco-social work, there remains a lack of eco-social work approaches taught in social work degree programs. Social workers are often at the forefront of responding to the needs of communities post natural disasters, and it has become apparent that the natural environment is increasingly a major influence on social work practice. However, the apparent dearth of eco-social work content in social work education leaves practitioners uncertain about how they might respond to environmental issues. This study explored social work students' perceptions of eco-social work, the extent to which they felt prepared to respond to environmental issues, their desire to learn more about eco-social work, and where they felt those lessons might fit within their degree. This research contributes to a growing body of literature by arguing that to adequately prepare social workers to practice in a world increasingly impacted by environmental changes, eco-social work must be embedded in the coursework of Australian social work degrees. IMPLICATIONS Social work students understand environmental issues as a key factor influencing the individuals and communities they work with. For social workers to address environmental injustice, they need to learn about eco-social work practice approaches. Social work educators need to include eco-social work approaches in their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an unexpected and extraordinary example of research data from a Photovoice project conducted with ex-prisoners in South Australia. It focusses on the contribution made by one of the participants who chose the pseudonym 'Deer'. Deer joins me as a co-author, her voice shines in this paper, albeit through a pseudonym she chose for the project. Photovoice, a qualitative research method, uses a feminist framework and typically produces rich thick accounts of lives and experiences that cannot be adequately captured by quantitative research. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of research data collection each have merits, but qualitative approaches tend to engage the researcher, participant and later the reader on a more personal level. Moreover, unexpected findings are more likely to arise when researchers ask participants to express what they believe is important to their experience. This paper provides such an example, where the unexpected gift of poetry adds a deeper dimension to research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]