549573

research-article2014

AEQXXX10.1177/0741713614549573Adult Education QuarterlyGouthro

Article

Women of Mystery:
Investigating Learning
Pathways of Canadian
and American Female
Crime Fiction Writers

Adult Education Quarterly

2014, Vol. 64(4) 356373
The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0741713614549573
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Patricia A. Gouthro1

Abstract
This article explores the learning pathways of 15 Canadian and American female
crime fiction authors. Using a critical feminist perspective, it argues that despite the
neoliberal rhetoric of individual choice, as in most careers, there are social-structural
factors that create opportunities and barriers for women mystery writers. The article
explores the background factors that shape womens interest in writing crime fiction,
considers the challenges that they face in developing their careers, and looks at the
supports that may help them to attain success. Despite challenges, there is often
intrinsic value in doing meaningful work that may motivate women to develop a
fiction-writing career.
Keywords
women, learning pathways, fiction writing, neoliberalism, critical feminist theory,
feminism, workplace learning, learning trajectories, adult education, lifelong learning

Although historically the field of crime fiction was dominated by men, in recent
decades the popularity of women mystery writers has grown significantly. According
to a recent survey conducted by Sisters in Crime, an organization that supports women
mystery writers, the majority of readers of crime fiction are women (www.sistersincrime.org). But how is it that women learn their way into a life of crime (fiction)? This
1Mount

Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Corresponding Author:
Patricia A. Gouthro, Faculty of Education, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax,
NS B3M 2J6, Canada.
Email: patricia.gouthro@msvu.ca

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question raises many important issues around the challenges that women face in forging successful careers fields that have traditionally been, and many would argue are
still, dominated by male interests. It delves into factors that shape womens learning
trajectories during their writing careers. It furthers the development of critical feminist
theoretical analysis to explore how individual circumstances connect to social structural factors to create gender differences in learning and experience.
Using a biographical approach, this article explores myriad pathways that several
American and Canadian women mystery writers have followed to forge successful
careers as crime fiction writers. This article draws on data from a study on lifelong
learning, citizenship, and fiction writing, and builds on earlier research on Sisters in
Crime (Gouthro, 2012). The findings are organized into four themes: (a) reading as
cultural capital, (b) choosing a life of crime (fiction), (c) nemeses and supporting characters, and (d) negotiating a writing life. A critical feminist perspective is used to
explore womens learning experiences in becoming mystery authors and how this connects to the broader field of adult education.

Literature Review
To set the context for this discussion, I explore three interrelated areas of background
literature. I start with a brief explanation of critical feminist theory, consider the limited research on fiction and lifelong learning, and then consider research on womens
learning trajectories and learning in the workplace.

Critical Feminist Theory

While some feminists are reluctant to draw on the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory,
as Dietz (2003) explains, one notable trait of feminist theory has been its tactical
capacity to appropriate and deploy various, often irreconcilable, methods and theories
in the course of engaging with its own subject matter (p. 400). While recognizing the
limited scope of gender analysis provided by critical theorists such as Jrgen Habermas
(Fraser, 1995), a critical feminist approach acknowledges that his work may still provide useful insights into how our society is structured. Habermas (1981) believes that
through communicative action, we may challenge existing power structures to develop
to our fullest capacity as learners and citizens. In modern society, we are often caught
up in meeting societal expectations, so we suppress our deepest desires and most
meaningful concernsour true nature as human beings, which can lead to a sense of
alienation. In order to envision alternative perspectives for living, learning, and being,
we need to tap into our capacity for critical, rational thought. As Habermas (1981)
explains, it is the task of critique to recognize domination as unreconciled nature even
within thought itself (p. 384). Through a critical lens, we can come to understand how
the system (economic, social, and political structures) may affect in detrimental ways
the realm of the lifeworld (our everyday lives in home and community where values
would normally be formulated), thus colonizing or reshaping our worldviewsour
taken-for-granted assumptions or belief systems.

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Newman (2012) explains that critical theory recognizes the inherent conflicts of
interest in all parts of our lives; argues that knowledge is generated in order to meet
particular human interests, and understands learning in terms of shifts in power
(p. 408). Within the current context of neoliberalism, economic imperatives have
become, as Harvey (2006) argues hegemonic.
Neoliberalism is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices which
proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by the maximization of
entrepreneurial freedoms within an institutional framework characterized by property
rights, individual liberty, free markets and free trade (p. 145).

The widespread acceptance of the logic of the market within a neoliberal context is
an example of the colonized lifeworld [that] sees whatever is supportive of and consistent with the imperatives of the economy as common sense. Useful knowledge is
often framed exclusively as technical and instrumental (Fleming, 2012, p. 132).
Habermas (1981) believes we must challenge this limited conceptualization of the
human capacity for reason by fostering our communicative ability to explore alternative perspectives or worldviews.
Critical feminist scholars such as Seyla Benhabib and Nancy Fraser and feminist
adult educators such as Sue Jackson, Tara Fenwick, Nancy Taber, Shahrzad Mozjab,
Shauna Butterwick, and Darlene Clover, draw attention to how questions of gender
(which intersects with other variables such as race, ability, and sexual orientation)
must be central to the analysis of adult learning. A critical feminist perspective broadens the focus for critical analysis to take into account gender as well as other socialstructural factors. It points out the ways in which neoliberalism creates a hegemonic
worldview that not only endorses capitalist values, but also reinforces patriarchal
norms that do not adequately take into account gender differences in experience.

Learning and Fiction

There has been limited research on adult learning in connection to fiction writing and
reading, particularly in examining issues pertaining to class and gender. Woodin
(2005) examines workshops developed in the 1970s in England to help people from
working-class and marginalized backgrounds to participate collaboratively in learning
to become writers. He notes that despite the belief that cultural expressions serve a
basic human need, in reality the opportunities for cultural expression and education
available to working-class people have been scarce (p. 563).
Long (2004) traces the development of White womens reading groups from the
19th through to the 20th century in the United States, noting that for the large numbers of middle class women who had no possibility of attending college, the literary
club offered the possibility of lifelong learning (p. 338). She draws on C. Wright
Mills (1959) concept of the sociological imagination to argue that reading groups
have also provided a space for women to think about how their inner lives and external
careers relate to the larger historical scene (p. 347). In a more current example,

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Rehberg Sedo (2008) looks at how media book programs, influenced by the success of
the Oprah Winfrey book club, have evolved in Canada and the United Kingdom to
influence reader selection of fiction and the development of cultural tastes.
Redmon Wright and Sandlin (2009) examine how popular culture, including fiction, may support learning in more formalized adult education contexts and argue for
additional research to explore learning connected to popular culture in informal contexts. Jarvis (2006) considers whether fiction may lead to transformative-learning
experiences for women readers and in more recent work (Jarvis, 2012), how it may
facilitate the development of empathy among adult learners. Jubas (2005) examines
how a particular work of fiction, such as Rohinton Mistrys (1995) book, A Fine
Balance, may help learners gain insights into the processes of globalization.
Czarniawska (2006) argues there are many reasons to take novelsand popular
culture in generalseriously when studying gender as a social practice (p. 250).
Crime fiction novels may demonstrate how gender plays out in male/female interactions and provide better insights into how sexist behavior is enacted than reviewing
excerpts from research transcripts. Fictional stories may resonate with readers who
recognize that scenarios depicted in novels reflect real-life problems.

Womens Learning Trajectories and Learning in the Workplace

Mystery authors develop their sense of identity as writers over the course of their lifespan through developing unique career trajectories. Insights into their learning processes may be explored by considering both the literature on learning trajectories and
learning in the workplace.
Hockings, Cooke, Yamashita, McGinty, and Bowl (2009) state that we define
ourselves in terms of our life histories and imagined futures, i.e. our learning trajectories (p. 484). Drawing on Wengers (1998) concept of communities of practice,
they explore how novice educators learn from more established members of the community within a workplace (such as a university) to develop their sense of identity as
educators. Nystrom, Dahlgren, and Dahlgren (2008) also draw on Wenger to explore
how graduates transition from university into the workplace where they found professional trajectories . . . [entail] a constant process influenced by events within a
community of practice, for example, a workplace, but also by the individuals involvement in other communities, for example, close family and private life (p. 218). In
earlier research on womens learning trajectories (Gouthro, 2009), I also note that
influences from the homeplace often shape womens decisions around learning and
work.
Most research on learning and the workplace does not clearly relate to the experiences of women fiction writers since most writers work at home rather than at a paid
work site. They are like self-employed laborers in some respects, but they often work
in isolation, and the publishing industry is structured quite differently from other businesses. Writing also provides a strong sense of intrinsic satisfaction, and while most
writers attempt to make a living at it, only in relatively few instances is it a lucrative
career (Gouthro, 2014).

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Research on women has frequently drawn attention to exploitative workplaces,

such as the garment industry (Fenwick, 2008; Kabeer, 2004). Yet gender discrimination affects womens equitable participation in many different workplaces, such as the
military (Taber, 2011) and business sector (Bierema, 2001). While these experiences
differ in some respects from that of female authors, as I found in a prior research study
on Sisters in Crime (Gouthro, 2012), gender discrimination affects the careers of many
women writers in terms of publication and recognition for their work.

Methodology
Drawing on a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)funded study that examines connections between lifelong learning, citizenship and
fiction writing, this article focuses on a subset of interviews conducted with female
American and Canadian crime fiction writers. Of these 15 women, one is African
American and one identified as lesbian. None of these participants were first-generation immigrants to Canada or the United States. While we sought a diverse sample of
writers for this study, this subset reflects the current demographics of traditionally
published female mystery writers in North Americapredominantly White, middleaged or older, and middle class.
Interviews with the authors used a life history approach and were 1 to 2 hours in
length. Within adult education, biographical research is often used as a way to explore
notions of agency and structure (Warren & Webb, 2007). As David and Clegg (2008)
point out, feminist influences helped to establish the importance of examining personal
experiences to understand learning across the lifespan. Using biographical approaches
is one way to gain insights into factors that shape individual learning experiences.
Interviews were conducted face-to-face, which, as Irvine (2011) notes, provides
more opportunities to encourage participants to speak at length about their experiences. Participants were asked about their home, education, work, and recreational/
community aspects of their lives, to obtain a more rounded picture of their backgrounds and how they learned to become writers. As part of the informed consent,
authors were asked to reveal their identities, but they were given the option to review
and edit their transcripts and to select out any quotes that they would prefer not to have
ascribed to them.
The analysis of data used a combination of critical feminist theory and a thematic
analysis of the transcripts. I focused on the experiences that authors shared about
learning to become a writer from different lenses of powerconsidering issues around
privilege and challenge in connection to gender and other social/cultural factors. As
Marshall and Rossman (2011) argue, the analytic process demands a heightened
awareness of the data, a focused attention to those data, and an openness to the subtle,
tacit undercurrents of social life (p. 214). Transcripts were reviewed multiple times as
a part of the coding process, to consider the often subtle ways in which information
such as social status or gendered behaviors were revealed. I also went back and forth
between the transcripts and critical and feminist literature, seeking connections to
explain the significance of points raised by the authors. From this analysis, four themes

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emerged that are discussed in this article: (a) reading as cultural capital, (b) choosing
a life of crime (fiction), (c) nemeses and supporting characters, and (d) negotiating a
writing life.

Reading as Cultural Capital

Although being a writer (for most authors) is not a high-income job, it is a privileged
position that carries social prestige. As a career, it provides autonomy and flexibility,
and most important, in the terms of humanist Abraham Maslowit provides opportunities for self-actualization. Writing is a creative endeavor, one that despite its challenges is innately satisfying to most authors. Yet it is also a highly competitive industry
to attain success in.
Contrary to neoliberal assumptions, individual career choices are often affected
significantly by other social cultural factors. Warren and Webb (2007) draw on
Bourdieu to note that variables such as gender, social class, and race affect access to
different kinds of social capital, which affects individual choices that shape learning
and career trajectories. Adamuti-Traches (2012) study on Canadian immigrants discusses language skills as a form of human capital. In different ways, cultural capital
shaped opportunities for women mystery writers. For example, all the writers had
attained at least middle-class status by the time they became writers, which enabled
them to attend writing courses and conferences. Most of the writers were university
educated, and the majority had extensive access to books and family support that
encouraged reading when they were growing up. In another article connected to this
study, my research collaborator and I (Gouthro & Holloway, 2013) note that consistently writers discuss the interrelated and somewhat symbiotic nature of reading and
writing. Understanding the initial motivation to become a published author involves
paying attention to participants relationships with books and with reading.
Books were an integral part of home life for many of the women mystery writers.
Canadian author Vicki Delany said, My parents were really keen readers; my mother
still is. There were always lots of books in the house; stacks and stacks of books.
Susanna Kearsley reflected on her upbringing:
My parents came from non-reading families, and yet theyre both very big readers. Our
house always had bookcases stuffed with books. Part of that was because my mother ran
a bookstore when I was about seven years old, so we tended to pirate her stock a lot.
Things would arrive like the McClelland and Stewart [a large Canadian publisher] series
of Anne of Green Gables books in hardcover and we would take them out of the box. Ive
got a really nice set of those even though they were copies to sell.
We would also go to auction sales, and back then you could buy a one dollar box of
books, or even a 25 cent box of books. So we always had tons and tons of books, and the
policy in our house was that you could take any book off the shelf that you wanted and
read it; there was no censorship of the books. Im sure there were some squirreled away
so we couldnt take them off the shelves until we were older, but if it was a rainy day we
were directed to the book case.

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American author, Kathleen Ernst, who writes both young adult (YA) fiction and
adult mystery novels explains,
My dad was a Methodist minister and my mom was a school librarian, so we didnt have
a lot of money when I was growing up for fancy trips, but both of my parents were
passionate readers. My mom was, obviously being a librarian, and my dad has a room
probably bigger than this hotel room that isnt just lined with book shelves, but it has
aisles created with bookshelves. If ever he was invited to a new church as a pastor, the
one caveat was that they would have to have a study that could contain his books. So
books were very important in my family when I was growing up and both of my parents
encouraged their kids to read.

In some cases, reading in the homeplace was a coping strategy. Canadian author,
Elizabeth Duncan, notes that I didnt have a particularly happy childhood for lots of
reasons, and I think many children who are readers learn early that reading is a good
way to escape. Similarly, American writer Joanna Campbell Slan talked about growing up in a household where her father was an alcoholic: Books were very important
to me because that was my escape. I dont think I could have survived mentally or
emotionally if I didnt have that other place to go. American author, Laurie R. King,
explains, We moved around and it got to the point where the library was my home,
really . . . when youre not in the same school in September as in June, its a lot of work
to make friends, so libraries are much better.
While not considering the capacity for reading and writing to be social capital, per
se, Canadian writer, R. J. Harlick, talked about being drawn to writing because of the
realization that words are very powerful. Similarly, Canadian author, Louise Penny,
shared this story:
I actually remember the moment when I decided I wanted to write; I was reading
Charlottes Web and I was deathly afraid of spiders . . . I spent a lot of time alone in my
room reading because I felt safe there, and I realized at some stage that Charlotte was a
spider. I loved Charlotte and trusted Charlotte, and I was not afraid at all of Charlotte. So
I was attracted to Charlotte, and Charlotte was this thing I was most afraid of and yet I
was attracted to her. In that moment my phobia, my real fear of spiders disappeared. And
I understood in that moment, I was about eight, the power of the wordhow powerful
stories were that it cured me; it took my fear away. From that moment on I wanted to have
part of that because I think most children are powerless. So I wanted to be part of this
thing that was so powerful. And later, of course, like most people, I learned the power of
the word could do great harm as well. But I understood that the opposite was true, so I
wanted to be part of that.

The homeplace is an integral part of the lifeworld, which some critical theorists
have tended to idealize (Gouthro, 2009). The homeplace may provide a refuge, but it
may also contain strife and conflict. Reading books may offer an attractive temporary
escape from realityan alternative, albeit imaginary lifeworld. As noted in the literature review, reading fiction provides opportunities for women to think about their

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lives, the society that they live in, and issues that affect them. Women sometimes
struggle with not having control over various facets of their lives, so the appeal of
entering into the realm of fiction and using words to create their own powerful stories
may draw them to a writing career.

Choosing a Life of Crime (Fiction)

The main reason women mystery writers gave for choosing to write crime fiction was
that these were the books they most enjoyed reading. Mary Jane Maffinni, a former
librarian, said, I read a lot of mysteries, like the Agatha Christies and the Hardy Boys
during my teens at the family cottage. Cathy Pickens, a lawyer who teaches in a university Business Faculty, says, Ive published lots of things in the academic world
but Ive always loved mysteries. Sarah Paretsky, who began her career in the corporate world of insurance, reflects,
I began reading crime fiction when I started reading adult fiction; I was 13 or 14 and it
has always been what I prefer to read. Even now when Im older and trying to get a wider
reading palate, I still choose crime fiction often.

In an earlier study that I did on Sisters in Crime (Gouthro, 2012), one participant
[her identity remains confidential as a part of the ethics agreement] speculated that
women are drawn to mystery because they
have a huge sense of outrage and justice, and those are the two things together that
combine to make mystery so satisfying to us. I think we are more outraged than men are
because we are not part of the system, as much as they are. (p. 47)

This discerning comment alludes to the tensions that critical theorists such as Habermas
focus on, between the system and the lifeworld. A feminist lens points to the way that
women are often excluded from power structures in the system and feel marginalized
in their daily existence. This can create frustration and resentment or anger. One satisfying aspect of mystery novels is that this sense of injustice and outrage is (at least
temporarily) resolved, since the perpetrators of the crime are usually caught and
punished.
Women may be drawn to writing crime fiction because they feel that it is the best
genre for telling stories with characters that are important to them. In fiction, they can
create strong female protagonists. For example, Joyce Lavene (who co-writes with her
husband, Jim) explains,
on my grandfathers side of the family we are three generations of firefighters. So when
I grew up I wanted to be a firefighter like my grandfather, but back then women couldnt
be firefighters. So we made Stella, our main character, the first woman in her firehouse
. . . you always take little parts of your life into the stories, whether or not its something
youve always thought about or something youve actually done.

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Reflecting on her career, Laurie R. King notes,

there is this joke about my career that I went from a life of God to a life of crime. To some
extent its hard to see the link between someone who does an academic degree in
Theology to someone who writes murder mysteries for a living. But in fact, what youre
looking at in the religions of the world, and particularly in the Old Testament, are stories.
Stories and how you make sense of the universe and your place in it as a human being.
That is reflected in those stories, those religious traditions and myths that you tell about
yourself when youre gone.

Writing is often what Billett, Newton, and Ockerby (2010) refer to as a vocation
rather than a standard career, since it is something that most writers feel compelled to
do. As Habermas (1981) discusses, the human capacity for critical rational thought is
connected to the need to make sense out of our lives by exploring matters that are
important to us. For many women, this process of meaning-making may involve delving into critical issues and ethical dilemmas that are often an essential component of
mystery books.
Crime fiction novels are frequently described as modern day morality tales, as mystery novels often explore various societal problems. Frankie Bailey is an African
American author and also a professor. In her interview, she points out that through
crime fiction the learner can explore social issues in a way that differs from traditional
teaching approaches. She gives the example of institutional racism, noting that
Even if you break it down and show how it reflects real life, people dont always see that
it represents a larger systemic situation as opposed to the story of an individual. But I
think that the benefit of writing fiction is that people are more likely to invest in and
connect with a story, as opposed to bringing a speaker into the class to talk about a similar
situation.

Jarvis (2012) argues that a benefit of using fiction with adult learners is that it may
spark feelings of empathy that, particularly with the support of critical educators who
encourage reflection on social-structural issues related to the issues, may motivate
learners to work toward social change.
Joanna Campbell Slan, who has worked as a journalist and motivational speaker
comments in her interview:
I wanted to take what I had learned as a Christian married to a Jew [and who has raised
her son as a Jew] and use that in my books. One of the things I learned as a speaker is that
if you get people laughing, they will listen to things that they normally will not listen to.

A number of female crime fiction writers use humor as a way to both engage the
reader and challenge social mores or beliefs. In my earlier research on Sisters in Crime
(Gouthro, 2012), I noted that the organization often used humor as a subversive strategyas a means of challenging issues around gender inequality while not antagonizing either the membership or the broader public. The focus on justice, moral concerns,

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and ethical dilemmas that are a part of crime fiction writing may resonate with women
authors who want to explore various social issues while still providing an entertaining
story that engages readers.

Nemeses and Supporting Characters

In developing a successful crime fiction writing career, women sometimes have to
deal with nemesesformidable opponents that create barriers to success. One of the
greatest nemeses for women is a nagging sense of self-doubt. In earlier research that I
did on womens learning trajectories in higher education and in governance (Gouthro,
2011), I found that even highly successful women struggled with questions such as:
Were they worthy? Did they have something valuable to contribute? A significant
learning challenge for women is to address and overcome internalized uncertainties
fostered by a patriarchal worldview that undermines womens confidence in their own
abilities to succeed.
Many female authors, even award winners who have made the New York Times
Bestselling List, indicated similar worries. This sense of self-doubt plays out at both
an individual level and in a broader context. Women find themselves questioning, do
womens stories matter as much?
Laurie R. King reflects,
I have been on Edgar committees [the Edgars are annual prizes given by the American
Association of Mystery Writers] and have also been a Chair. Edgar Awards are given by
a panel of five judges . . . . I have been on committees that have come up with five books
for the final list, all written by men. These are committees that have three women and two
men. The women are certainly strong, and the men wouldnt be seen as sexist or looking
down at women writers, and yet we come up with lists that are all men. I dont know why
and I think its a real puzzle. Why is it that almost consistently youll find awards at the
Edgars weighted towards the male writers? You can theorize all you like about it, but its
one of those questions that interests me as a woman. Is it something in my writing that
isnt important enough? That doesnt address the key issues of life deeply enough?

Women are more likely to write traditional mysteries that focus on interpersonal
relationships rather than action-driven thrillers. Tensions around gender differences
sometimes arise in the mystery world because crime fiction novels written by women,
particularly traditional mysteries, are often perceived to be less valuable.
Just as male critical theorists, such as Habermas, often diminish or dismiss womens concerns as particularistic while male concerns are defined universalistic
(Gouthro, 2009)which implies they are more importantwomens novels are often
perceived to be less significant because their stories may differ from mens (and therefore are only of interest to women). This patriarchal viewpoint validates a masculine
perspective that is reflective of what Habermas (1981) refers to as a worldviewan
overarching understanding of the world that is so pervasive people take for granted the
underlying values and assumptions that shape their attitudes and beliefs.

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Adding a feminist lens points to the way in which a masculine worldview seeps into
the consciousness of both men and women, so that they are often not fully aware of
underlying biases that may affect their value judgments. Even women who write about
strong female protagonistsLaurie R. Kings character of Mary Russell certainly fits
into this categorystruggle with the ways in which patriarchy insinuates itself into the
consciousness of most people so that mens lives are given more validation than womens lives, even within fictionalized contexts.
Fear and self-doubt can also serve as a nemesis at a more personal level, which
may connect to internalized gender differences, even when a woman is confident at
many levels. Louise Penny discussed her struggle to overcome 5 years of writers
block:
Im very competitive and I had no excuses. I had nobody to blame which was really
annoying. I was good at everything and I couldnt do it out of fear. It was fear. What a
thief fear is, at least it has been in my life; and it almost took the biggest dream . . . the
only dream Id had since I was eight. It almost took it.

The challenge then, for many women, is how do you overcome this nemesisthis
sense of fear or self-doubt?
One strategy may be to connect with a network or communitya cast of supporting
characters. Louise Penny talked about joining a group of artistic women in the community that she moved to:
So I fell in with a group of women who had the courage to do what I didnt . . . this was
a bunch of women who were creating and not worrying about the judgment of others . . .
ultimately what I learned while watching these women, I learned that it [the ability to
write creatively] needed to come from inside and not outside; and the judgment of others
will not kill you. Your own personal inability and critique will kill you, but the criticism
of others will not.

Women writers often talked about the importance of different communities that
they joined. Sara Paretsky, one of the founders of Sisters in Crime, reflects, writing is
a very lonely process that leaves you open to self-doubt constantly. Just having an
organization like Sisters . . . provides a space and time where you can get together and
talk about how you are doing.
Canadian author Susan Calder talks about connecting to peers interested in
writing:
You also make friends in classes or in writing groups, and Ive met people who are still
my writing friends. Well call each other and meet to discuss our work for feedback, or
just meet for support. Were all aiming for the same thing and have the same kinds of
frustrations. You develop social friendships as well.

Elizabeth Duncan commented on her critique group:

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I belonged to a little writers and editors group that brought in guest speakers, and I would
leave the meeting every Saturday night really charged up; I could hardly wait to get back
home and start writing again.

In addition, writing instructors can also provide important mentoring support. Sara
Paretsky reflects back on writing her first book:
I wrote seventy pages in nine months and thought, I dont know how to do this; I dont
know what Im doing, whine, whine, whine. And then Stuart Kaminsky, of blessed
memory, was teaching a class in my school called Writing Detective Fiction for
Publication. So I signed up for that and Stuart was great; he told me some of the things
that I was doing right and some that I needed to change. But mostly he said, This is a
great character; write it to the end. He gave me the confidence I needed to finish the
book.

R. J. Harlick talked about a course she took:

I was fortunate to have Nino Ricci [a Canadian literary author] as our workshop leader,
and he gave me positive feedback. He said he liked it and he thought there was potential
there. That was all I neededjust a few positive words.

Supporting characters (both men and women) may play an important role in
women attaining confidence in their capabilities as writers. They may be more prone
to self-doubt because their experiences are not validated in the same way as mens are.
Learning the craft of becoming a writer through courses, critique groups, and conferences is a strategy to address this. The history of the womens movement reveals that
working collectively can benefit not only the group, but also the individual.

Negotiating a Writing Life

Women often have more complex learning and career pathways because of social
expectations around caregiving responsibilities, a factor all the women alluded to,
regardless of their own personal circumstances. Most of the women in this study began
their careers as writers when they were, as Elizabeth Duncan said, of a certain age.
They usually had other careers first and began writing late in their work life or at the
time of retirement. Some women had husbands who were the breadwinners while
they took time to establish themselves as writers.
Jessica Simon, a writer from the Yukon (Canadian North) talks about how after she
and her husband sold their wilderness tourism business:
Thats when I decided to ask my husband if I could be a writer full time . . . I had to
explain, it means Im going to stay home and writing, which means Im not working,
which means Im not making money. Can we afford for me to be a writer? And he said,
How long do you think thats going to take? Three to five years? Okay. In fact, he had
given me seven years; and at four and a half, I had my first book.

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Louise Penny, who does not have children and who left her career in the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to concentrate upon her fiction writing, said,
I have just immense respect for anyone as we talked about before who starts a book, never
mind finishes one. And someone who manages to do that and hold down a full time job
and raise children. Honestly . . . its scary enough to write a book, but to have to write it
under those conditions is remarkable. I didnt have to. Michael [her husband] said, Ill
support you financially and emotionally, and he has. So I had the best possible environment
in which to write.

Many of the writers interviewed did not have children. Canadian, Lou Allin, shared,
I grew up with a lot of single women who were older and had perfectly good careers and
lives. I saw them as models and thought, Why not? This Earth has plenty of people, so
Im glad to give my space to someone else who is really keen on it.

Cathy Pickens, who balances being a university professor with a successful fiction
writing career explained,
My husband is very self-sufficient though, so no living thing relies on me for sustenance.
I had to make that decision because I talk to these people all the time and theyve got kids
and all this other stuff that theyve got to do, and I dont.

For women who are mothers, the experience of raising children may generate learning, but it also takes away time from other activitiessuch as writing. Susanna
Kearsley was an established author before she married and had children. She now
combines raising two children with a successful writing career:
So yes, it takes a bit of juggling, but then you gain from it as well. The wonderful thing
about being a writer is that everything in life is material, and the more you live the more
material you get, and the richer your writing gets. There are scenes that I couldnt have
written in the last book if I hadnt been a mother . . . it can be frustrating because the
nature of writing is that you want to disappear into it. You want to have those hours and
hours of nothing to do, and then you look up and youve got two little faces wanting a
snack and the dog looking at a supper dish. Thats the choice I made. My children have
to be brought into that situation, so I have to adapt to that.

Laurie R. King had two school-aged children when she began writing. She noted,
Although the first few books didnt sell for a lot, it was enough to justify continuing to do
it. If I hadnt sold them, and it was just Lauries hobby, it might have been tough to
justify the number of hours you have to spend. It takes away from family, but I was
fortunate enough to sell.

The women who were single parents, like Vicki Delany, or those who needed to
make an income, however, often put their goals of becoming a writer on the back

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burner for many years. Like women in all kinds of careers, writers negotiate complicated lives. Yet it is interesting to note that when Louise Penny expressed admiration
for women who could successfully balance writing with paid work and childcare, in
fact none of the women mystery writers interviewed in this study were simultaneously
working full time at another job while raising young children and sustaining a writing
career. It appears that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for women to balance
a full-time paid occupation with childcare while developing a successful writing
career.
One of the biggest challenges of forging a writing career is the amount of time it
takes, with no guarantee of financial return. In a neoliberal society, individuals are
charged with making wise choices around learning and careers (Axford & Seddon,
2006). There is an increased emphasis on individuals constructing their own learning
identities and pathways. Through this, Usher (2008) argues, every aspect of life, like
every commodity, is imbued with self-referential meaning; every choice an emblem of
identity (p. 41). Yet as in other careers, women writers often do not feel that they have
a choice in the same way that men might, in deciding how much time they need to
devote to others. While we each make decisions around our engagement in work, family, and learning, a critical feminist analysis reveals that each persons learning pathway is affected by numerous factors, including but also going beyond individual
temperament or ability. Since women are still primary caregivers in the homeplace,
they may be faced with the decision to either not have children or wait until late career
or retirement to pursue writing full time.
Gender also played a role in that sometimes male partners are better able to provide
financial support for women if they wish to write. While this may be problematic in
that it places women, initially at least, in a position of financial dependency, it may
also enable women to pursue their goals. A couple of the authors pointed out that the
financial support of their husbands allowed them to focus full time on establishing a
writing career. In the case of Louise Penny, whose latest book landed second on the
New York Times bestseller listthis has paid off in huge dividends. The majority of
writers, however, are more like Jessica Simon, who find that the writing life may bring
immense personal satisfaction but not a large salary!

Implications for Adult Education

This study draws attention to the kinds of challenges that women face when they seek
to develop a career that does not fit into a traditional kind of job. It points out the tenacity of women in pursuing goals that are meaningful to them. As Vaccarro and Lovell
(2010) argue, while gender responsibilities in the homeplace may create demands on
womens time, women often demonstrate great persistence in pursuing their objectives. While their study examined womens experiences in returning to education, the
writers in this study also showed remarkable determination to pursue their writing
goals while juggling other commitments.
As the global marketplace changes the book publishing industry, women mystery
writers negotiate often tenuous careers that require constant learning. An analysis of

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how personal biography shapes capacity for agency must include an examination of
social structures that women mystery writers are working within. In a time of rapidly
changing technologies and upheavals in the book industry, organizations such as
Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, and Mystery Writers of America provide
important educational opportunities to learn about changes in the global world of publishing. Decisions around whether to self-publish, how to market using social media,
and opportunities to network with other authors and readers electronically are all
issues that these organizations address through educational resources and workshops.
In their study on learning and work, Billett, Smith, and Barker (2005) note, the
relationship between the individual and social agency is not mutual or reciprocal; it is
relational (p. 233). Therefore, each person navigates a different pathway in workplace learning, and each experience is unique. American author, Cathy Pickens,
explains,
Someone asked me to do an essay for a book one time, about how I got published and I
called it The Path?, because I remember going to conferences and reading interviews
with writers because I thought there must be some magic way to do this . . . and I havent
met a writer yet who had the same path as another writer. There is a level of professionalism,
and its a long apprenticeship; its not easy.

Although learning to be a writer is very much a self-directed learning project,

women frequently spoke about the importance of connectivity with others, through
writing courses, critique groups, and organizations such as Sisters in Crime. Most of
the women valued the relationships that they formed with other writers and were more
likely to view them as helpful peers rather than as competitors. For many women, having a social support network was perceived to beneficial in establishing successful
writing careers and in developing confidence in their abilities to write.
One hopes that the crime fiction community may become increasingly diverse as
the population of non-European immigrants continues to swell in North America, and
as historically marginalized groups, such as Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, and African
American/Canadian populations gain greater social recognition. Frankie Bailey, who
is an academic as well as a crime fiction writer notes,
Recently I did a book on African American mystery writers. There are many more now
than there were in the 1990s. I traced their roots back to the 19th century looking at
narratives to see how African American writers went from writing short stories to genre
novels like crime fiction.

In addition, however, it might be beneficial for programs that support literary fiction to broaden their mandate to enhance opportunities for genre writing. This is
important if, as Holden (2000) argues, fiction is connected to citizenship, in that
through fiction we can tell stories that explore important issues integral to any nation
or society. As Woodin (2005) notes, contrary to the perception that all citizens have
access to the arts, these opportunities are often linked with privilege. There is often an
(inaccurate) assumption that genre fiction will be commercially successful, so unlike

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literary fiction or poetry, mystery writers do not require additional supports. Yet if
opportunities were provided for writers from diverse and marginalized social groups
to write in the genres that most intrigue them, it might contribute to a richer mosaic of
fiction written within their own countries.
Ultimately, the women in this study demonstrated that a love or passion for writing
can be powerful motivator. The enormous amount of time, energy, and dedication that
they committed to developing their craft is an indicator of the desire that people have to
do work that is intrinsically valuable. Challenging a neoliberal perspective that implies
financial concerns are the only concerns, a critical feminist lens points to the ways in
which these authors strove to tell stories that mattered to them. While seeking financial
success, these writers did not speak about their books as though they were just products
to sell in an overly commodified worldrather they were novels that explored topics
that they felt were important, and they told their stories through a genre that had always
captivated their interest. Overall, these women of mystery revealed that through their
work, and through developing their craft, they were willing to engage in a lifetime of
learning to forge careers that were meaningful to themselves and to others.
Authors Note
This article builds on a conference paper (Women of mystery: Learning pathways of female
crime fiction writers) that was presented by the author at the 2013 (February/March) European
Society on the Education of Adults (ESREA) Conference on Life History and Biographical
Research, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, England, U.K.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article: This article draws on a Social Science and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Standard Research Grant: Creating a Canadian Voice:
Lifelong Learning, Fiction Writing and Citizenship (P. A. Gouthro, Principal Investigator; S.
M. Holloway, Collaborator). SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of
Canada) Grant Award File Number: 435-2014-1956.

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Author Biography
Patricia A. Gouthro is a professor and coordinator of the Graduate Studies in Lifelong Learning
program in the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
She is currently working on a new SSHRC study examining how fiction writing can foster creative literacies, as well as a smaller study looking at crime fiction and critical social learning.

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