Interviewing Older Men

Abstract

Qualitative research into the experiences of older men is still a rarity. More generally, studies on ageing and gender have mostly addressed the experiences of women and gay men, while studies of masculinities have tended to focus on younger men, leaving issues of masculinity and gender in older, heterosexual men relatively under-researched. Paradoxically, ageing men are far from being on the margins of contemporary society. Film, magazines and literary fiction do not shy away from portraying the lives and experiences of older men and news broadcasts, television shows, weather forecasts and documentaries provide us with an abundance of senior male voices and figures. As Hearn (1995) points out, these representations focus on successful men and portray them as the norm. This in turn has contributed to seeing older men as unproblematic and not in need of much attention. The small literature available on men in later life suggests that ageing provides men with both challenges and opportunities for their identity, wellbeing and relationships (Suen, 2010, p. 199). Qualitative interviewing is particularly apt for exploring under-researched groups as well as sensitive topics. Despite an emerging interest in the experiences of ageing men, little work reflects how social researchers interview this group of men. This chapter will look at the reasons as to why heterosexual ageing men remain largely at the margins of research, highlight issues arising from qualitative studies into researching their experiences, and provide a reflection on my own research experiences of conducting interviews with men over 50.KeywordsGender RoleEarly RetirementAging StudyComplementary MedicineTheoretical SamplingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.