Abstract: “This article is based on my doctoral thesis research in Education. The subject of this study was the under 40-year-old female doctoral students with a family. The objective was to understand the experiental stages of lifecourse of the female doctoral students with a family through their stories. In the study chronological and lifecourse continuity are emphasized: past, present and future. The examination is performed mainly from the points of view of a family and of doctoral studies. The family and doctoral studies are placed in both the macro and the micro level when examined with regards to lifecourse; in them the public and the individual meet. How advantageous it is for the female doctoral student with a family to understand the stages and consequences of the process of gaining a doctoral degree, in both the wider and in the individual context?.”

Keywords: lifecourse, family, female doctoral student, everyday life, future thinking, understanding, temporality