| Résumé: | In order to present an exercise showing the importance of "mixed methodology", this article offers an exploratory approach to the simultaneous use of data sources clearly identified with qualitative and quantitative research styles. One of the means the authors have found of linking the two sources has been to construct a typology-with quantitative data-similar to that previously elaborated in a qualitative study to describe the possible links between four life trajectories (school, work, marriage and child-bearing) of a group of urban, middle-class women. The search for differences and nuances became a common purpose for the two types of sources of data used. Indeed, the authors felt that having combined a quantitative analysis with the results of a previous qualitative study was precisely what made it possible to both enrich and reinforce the proposal of the existence of diversity within homogeneity. Thus, after having compared various types of sources of information, they were struck by the fact that the set of cases in the qualitative study reflected the general features of similar universes extracted from the statistically representative database. Some of the characteristics that comprised the socio-demographic profile of the set of qualitative cased found their correlation in the similar behavior of the same properties of the quantitative sub-samples. Thus, not only were isolated characteristics similar, but it was even possible to construct a similar typology with the populations from both sources, thereby reinforcing the assumptions of "mixed methodologay".
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