Single mothers returning to education—Stigma, symbolic violence and moral project of the self

In the UK, higher education (HE) is often valorised as a ticket to social mobility, assuming that working-class individuals aspire to move ‘up’ and ‘out of’ their class. This article explores the impact of stigma and how theoretically ‘productive’ stigmatising narratives can be in getting factions of the working class to seemingly help themselves out of poverty. To do so, it draws upon the narratives of working-class single mothers on an Access to HE course in England. It links classed and gendered dimensions of stigma to explain aspirations for HE framed in terms of desires to remove stigmatising labels, rather than moving ‘up’ or ‘away’ from their class. Education served as a way for these mothers to present a refined moral character and create distinction between themselves and ‘other’ single mothers, while unconsciously perpetuating the very stigmatisation they despised. This article contributes to an understanding of how class is felt as much as it is socially and economically organised and shows how class divisions and stigmas are maintained not just through material inequalities but also through emotional and embodied experiences.