Research: Uncertain Futures

Research summary

• Ongoing since 2021

Uncertain Futures is a collaborative artwork highlighting intersectional issues around work for women over 50, with a focus on gender, age, race, disability and class.   

The project will open in 2021 with an installation in Manchester Art Gallery, hosting live interviews with 100 women from all walks of life. It will also feature workshops, talks, and media presentations that explore survival and equity issues.

The main question guiding the research is: What challenges do women over 50 years face in relation to work in Manchester? 

objectives

The participatory art-led research study is being conducted by a social science research team (law and social care) alongside an advisory group of women, artist Suzanne Lacy, and the communities learning manager at Manchester Art Gallery.  

The work will draw out thematic challenges facing women over 50 in Manchester from the narratives collected, as a participatory artwork within Manchester Art Gallery.  

The participatory artwork will result in a collection of narratives from 100 women over 50 from diverse backgrounds in Manchester, around their experience of work. The artwork essentially gives voice to these women to describe and expose the inequalities they have faced in their working lives (to include both paid and unpaid work) and will uncover overlooked strengths of the women.  

The research team, along with the advisory group, will then use social science and legal methodologies to analyse the collected narratives. This will be done alongside recent employment law tribunal cases on equality law to identify the main themes which will form the basis of future policy change.  

Multimedia policy briefings will be produced to enhance engagement and impact. The participatory artwork, narratives, case law and multimedia policy briefings will be hosted on an Uncertain Futures website. This can then be used as a hub for policy impact.  

The artwork and accompanying research is overseen by an Advisory Board made up of exceptional women leaders from within Manchester, who are themselves connected to a network of agencies within the city.  

The project is aimed at third sector organisations, the public sector, and regional and national policy makers. It aims to raise awareness of the inequalities experienced by women over 50 from a range of diverse backgrounds in Manchester in work, and the relevant policy implications of these exposed inequalities. 

Methodology

The research uses social science methodologies of narrative collection and analysis, as well as legal methodologies of case law analysis. 

Narrative collection and analysis will allow the researchers to interpret the stories collected in the participatory artwork and to draw out diverse and meaningful interpretations and conclusions from these narratives, such as the underlying ideologies embedded in the stories, and the larger culture which creates them.

Narrative analysis is particularly useful in gender scholarship to highlight “traditionally silenced voices”(Rodriguez, 2016). Legal case law analysis is a traditional form of analysis used in legal research to identify problems relating to the law, and to identify common themes and inequalities. It is particularly useful for policy development when it is used in combination with other social science research methodologies.

The team also expects to conduct analysis days with the Advisory Group which will enrich the findings and produce impactful policy agendas. 

Expected outputs

At this stage of the project we are aiming to develop three specific outputs:

• a website

• a multimedia policy briefing based on one particular theme emerging from the research

• a policy-focused event to support the artwork

The aim of the website is twofold: a repository of narratives and legal case law, and also a policy hub to raise public awareness of the main inequalities facing women over 50 in work. In addition, the policy briefings will use visual imagery, videos, and infographics to ensure maximum impact. The event, supported by the artwork, will focus on the theme of the policy briefing. 

Header Image credit - Audrey Albert