Psychology & Society, 2009, Vol. 2 (1), 50 ‐ 54 50 Objective Hermeneutic: Methodological Reflections on Social Structures in Women´s Lives PETRA STEINER Vienna, Austria BARBARA PICHLER University of Vienna The purpose of this article is to offer insights into a feminist research project 1 and to present the methodological reflections within this project. Foremost, the subject and aim of the study are introduced. Some experiences with the qualitative method of objective hermeneutics (Objektive Hermeneutik) are described; why this method was selected for this investigation and how the methodology was modified within the research process. The article focuses predominantly on the modified understanding of social structures. In brief, poststructural positions were followed and therefore the original positions of Ulrich Oevermann, the founder of Objektive Hermeneutik were broadened. Finally some empirical findings about social structures in women´s lives are reviewed. SUBJECT AND AIM OF THE STUDY The main concern of the study is general and non‐vocational adult education. The current situation of adult education in Austria is that lessons and programs offered by adult education often are only oriented on consumer and economic needs, which is criticised by the research group. There is little empirical and theoretical foundation and due to this lacking, the research group saw the necessity of this qualitative study. Mainly women participate in courses of general and non‐vocational adult education and therefore we focused on women. 2 The thesis is that women are affected differently by the processes of reflexive modernization than men. Women are much more challenged to adapt their biographical patterns and their common acting (Oechsle, 2000). Within the “double socialisation” (Becker‐Schmidt, 1987), women are still responsible for work within the sphere of reproduction, but they are increasingly in charge within the production‐sphere too. In their lives they have to connect things, which are structurally disconnected, e.g. they have to cope with a different set of patterns of time, as family members and job‐related issues. The question of interest here is which kind of problems or crisis bar women from acting satisfactorily in their lives (subdivided in a biographical and a workday perspective). The aim of the study is to examine the structural dimension of women 1 From 2002 to 2005 an interdisciplinary group of eight scientists (AG feministische Bildungsarbeit Wien Salzburg), mainly pedagogues, worked together on this feminist study, which was published in 2005 under the title Feministische Bildungsarbeit. Leben und Lernen zwischen Wunsch und Wirklichkeit (Christof, et.al, 2005). 2 A survey of Statistik Austria (2008) showed that within 4 weeks 183,600 women and 102,800 men in Austria visited ‘private orientated’ adult education courses.