The Effect of Interviewer's Gender on the Interviewing Process: A Comparative Enquiry

Abstract

This paper is drawn from a study of the work and family experiences and aspirations of young adult women who were interviewed by either one or the other of the authors in 1992. A comparison can thus be drawn between interviews conducted by a man and those by a woman. This is attempted in a systematic and empirical way. The initial intention was to learn from the literature on gender and the interview to minimise the impact of the interviewer's gender on the data generated. In the first section this is reviewed and we put a case that this intention was achieved. This was, however, only to an extent, as we indicate with material on the revelation of abortion experience to the two interviewers. Whilst there was a similar pattern of response to our direct questions, there was a marked difference in the voluntary addition of further personal experience. The final evidence we deploy comes from re-interviews done in 1994 in which the interviewees were asked about their perception of the significance of the original interviewer's gender. This indicates the importance of interviewees' concepts of gender as well as the intentions of researchers.

Masculinity, Age and Rapport in Qualitative Research

“…Moreover, the gender of the researcher is of central importance. Just as Pini (2005) found her male interviewees responded to her specifically as a female researcher, we can see that male participants may perform their gender in different ways, and be more or less willing to offer intimate thoughts and feelings, depending on whether they speak to a male and female researcher (Padfield and Procter, 1996;Sallee and Harris, 2011).…”

“…Moreover, the gender of the researcher is of central importance. Just as Pini (2005) found her male interviewees responded to her specifically as a female researcher, we can see that male participants may perform their gender in different ways, and be more or less willing to offer intimate thoughts and feelings, depending on whether they speak to a male and female researcher (Padfield and Procter, 1996;Sallee and Harris, 2011).Age and gender evidently influence the relationship between researcher and the researched and, in various ways, infuse the focus and form of fieldwork interactions and, as a result, the types of findings made. Indeed, the very nature of these interactions reveals important insights into the way in which gender is performed by participants.…”

Often biased but rarely in doubt: How initial reactions to stigmatized applicants affect interviewer confidence

“…3 Interviewer characteristics (in general; see Guion, 2011) and "gender-of-interviewer" effects (in specific) warrant further attention in future studies (Padfield & Procter, 1996). For instance, the interviewers' gender may play a part when sensitive, gendered topics are questioned (Kane & Macaulay, 1993) but might also depend on the interviewer's sexism (Good & Rudman, 2010), job characteristics (feminine vs. masculine sex-typed jobs; Johnson, Sitzmann, & Nguyen, 2014), and degree of interview structure (McCarthy et al, 2010).…”

Gendering the Interview: Feminist Reflections on Gender as Performance in Research

“…They argue that "even when gender is a 'constant,' it is still 'constantly there " (p. 282) . Common wisdom suggests same-gender interviewing is preferable based on the assumption of improved rapport by "natural" affinity, but supporting evidence is mixed or anecdotal (Graves & Powell, 1996;Padfield & Proctor, 1996;Warren , 1988;Williams & Heikes, 1993). Some wonder if women make better interviewers because feminine communication styles supposedly make women better listeners (Graves & Powell, 1996).…”

“…Padfield and Proctor (1996) , woman and man respectively , also compared their interviews, this time with young women recounting abortion histories; Padfield and Proctor were surprised to find that their respondents' answers depended not only 172 Women's Studies in Co mmunication on respondent s' definitions of gender but also on the interviewers' genders and the interviewers' definitions of gender.…”