Eve on Top

4

Exploring and experiencing ‘success’

Occasionally … I do think, ‘blimey, you’ve come a long way girl’. (Kate)

For me, success is not the destination; success is the ongoing continuum … success in terms of my life looks like one very simple principle: it’s about being happy and being fulfilled. (Maggie)

Introduction

This chapter concentrates on success and successful women. We begin by looking at definitions of the word ‘success’ and articulate our approach to the study in this context. We enumerate the ways in which the participants in our study defined and evaluated success. We consider the context in which the women describe and analyse their and others’ success and suggest that being successful is something which they judge across a ...