Giving up as a willful feminist practice

What do we, as women, give up? What does it mean to give up as a woman in academia? We explored this question through a study with women doctoral students to reframe giving up as a purposeful, willful act. Sara Ahmed describes willfulness in relation to women who are perceived as resisting norms, shifting away from normative expectations, refusing what is expected. In this work, we push against the prevailing discourses of women in academia as passively encountering problems, facing issues, and making sacrifices. We explore what it means to give up through three women’s archives and objects of willfulness. Willfulness becomes a generative, sweaty concept through which we interrogate and understand practices of giving up by women doctoral students.