self-betterment

English

Etymology

From self- +‎ betterment.

Noun

self-betterment (uncountable)

1. The act of making oneself better.
   • 2010, Susan Cayleff, Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health, Temple University Press, page 88:

     Before the 1850s, when women figured most prominently in textile employment, the reasons that caused women to seek paid labor—a ne'er-do-well husband, economic distress of the natal family, or a belief that factory work was a road to self-betterment—often precluded their considering an away-from-home cure.

   • 2018 September 18, Rebecca Lewis, “Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube”, in Data & Society‎^[1]:

     Specifically, they recount ideological testimonials that frame ideology in terms of personal growth and self-betterment.