“Only if she is sexy”

Abstract

Purpose -Ten years have elapsed since the author was a doctoral student and conducted a study on the life stories of abusive men, about which the author writes in the present autoethnography. The research was submitted and earned the author her PhD; the findings were written in a book published in 2003, and the author also had articles published abroad. And yet, not one word of what the author relates here was reported to her supervisor, nor did it appear in any of the publications dealing with that study. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach -In this autoethnography the author describes some episodes that occurred while she was conducting this research and raises some questions regarding feminist research and the power relations between a female researcher and male participants -questions such as "Could it have been less abusive?", "Why did I not write all this as part of my reflection on myself and my research process?", "Why did it take me so long to be able to talk about it in a professional forum?", "Does it happen to every researcher who studies men?", "Can it happen again?" and "Does it lie somewhere in the seductive part of female interviewer-male participant relationships?". Findings -In light of the episodes described, the paper will discuss the dilemmas of being a woman and a feminist researcher, vulnerable to some male research participants. Originality/value -The question of a woman researcher's vulnerability is scarcely described in research methodology articles and books.

“What’s She Doing Here?!”: Negotiating Gender Identity and Harassment in Gendered, Sexualized, and “Taboo” Research Spaces

“…These reflective confessionals focus on a wide variety of gender-based topics, including, but not limited to, the increased emotional labor and navigation of gender dynamics involved when interviewing men (Arendell, 1997; Campbell, 2003; Gailey & Prohaska, 2011; Pini, 2005; Presser, 2005; Yassour-Borochowitz, 2012), sexism (Horn, 1997; Smart, 1984), unwanted attention and flirting (Grauerholz et al, 2013; Gurney, 1985; Pini, 2005), harassment (Green et al, 1993; Hanson & Richards, 2017; Huff, 1997; Kloß, 2017; Mugge, 2013), threats of harm both implicit and explicit, and acts of physical and sexual violence (Berry et al, 2017; Elliott, 2021; Sharp & Kremer, 2006). For example, in Pini’s (2005) interviews of men in elected positions within an agricultural organization in Australia, she reported being sexually objectified as she shared the same last name as an Australian playboy model.…”

“…In this tradition, many ethnographers have highlighted the importance of safety as a consideration when embarking on fieldwork (Vanderstaay, 2005; Williams et al, 1992). Expectedly, the issue of safety, especially as it relates to the threat of sexual violence is of particular importance to women researchers, has been well documented (Gailey & Prohaska, 2011; Green et al, 1993; Huff, 1997; Huggins & Glebbeek, 2009; Mugge, 2013; Yassour-Borochowitz, 2012). Furthermore, there is now a small but growing body of sociological and anthropological literature that has begun to contend with the larger structural and cultural happenings of the last decade, that markedly impact broader understandings of gender, sexism, and discrimination in the United States (Appert & Lawrence, 2020; King, et al, 2020).…”