Intersectional reflexivity: Fieldwork experiences of ethnic minority women researchers

Abstract

In this paper, we illustrate the usefulness of intersectional reflexivity as an approach for researchers to reflect on their role with more nuance. This approach highlights the importance of reflexivity accounts engaging in more nuanced reflection that considers how intersecting socially constructed categories of difference are mobilized during research exchanges to negotiate positionality and the resulting instances of researcher privilege and disadvantage. We exemplify the value of intersectional reflexivity by using our own experiences as ethnic minority women researchers in patriarchal settings to show that gendered, racio‐ethnicized, aged, and classed dynamics in interactions and exchanges are not immediately obvious. We argue that a purposeful framework that embeds the intersectional lens into reflexive efforts is needed to understand researcher experiences as riddled with both privilege and disadvantage, where both researchers and participants have power and invoke particular intersectional identities to reposition themselves and each other in their interactions. The paper calls for more attention to the co‐constructed nature of research exchanges to inform the way the researcher's self‐accountability is problematized and reported.

Intersectionality in health equity research

“…This will be challenging given ongoing difficulties in collecting and reporting even single category data in some countries 22. In addition, the involvement of marginalised communities in the design, conduct, and reporting of research on health inequities is essential, alongside researchers’ reflections on their own social position and how this influences their work 23…”

Reading In‐Between: How Women Engage with Messages of ‘Superstar’ Business Role Models

“…Because our research is underpinned by constructionist epistemology, we see interviews as sites where knowledge is constructed, and thus acknowledge and reflect on the role of our subjectivity in this process (Cunliffe, 2003). Reflexivity and positionality have traditionally been used in feminist research to make power relations between the researcher and the researched visible (Haraway, 1991; Mohanty, 1986; Rodriguez and Ridgeway, 2023). In our case, this dynamic was often complex.…”

Intersectional Reflexivity: Centering Invocations and Impositions in Reflexive Accounts of Qualitative Research

“…The background to this effort lies in the interest to challenge dominant ideas of reflexivity that have primarily focused on single categorical reflexive analyses -for instance, most works that interrogate aspects of difference in the research process have tended to use the gender binary to explore the researcher-participant relationship. In particular, a focus on women's sexuality and bodies and how these are problematised and oppressed during the research process has overlooked the salience of other socially-constructed categories of identity, such as race, ethnicity, age, disability, religion, among others, transforming them into dimensions that are hidden in plain sight (see Gouws 2020).With some notable exceptions (see Johnson-Bailey 1999;Phoenix 1993;Egharevba 2001;Few, Stephens and Rouse-Arnett 2003;Rodriguez/Ridgway 2023), the framing of reflexive interrogation has largely failed to recognise the usefulness and importance of an intersectionality lens to add dimensionality and depth to the reflexive praxis.…”