Interviewing women: Issues of frienship, vulnerability, and power

Abstract

This paper, drawing on the author's experience of researching affinal relationships between women, seeks to contribute to discussion about what goes on in the research interview. It aims to provide a critique of some of the feminist literature on interviewing by examining the ‘participatory model’ as a research method which seeks to ‘put the subjective in the knowledge’. The paper questions assumptions regarding the possibility of friendship between women researchers and respondents, and also examines issues of power and control within interview situations. Feminists have argued that the power imbalabce between women respondents and women researchers is in favour of the latter, but the paper argues that interviews are fluid encounters where balances shift between and during different interview situations, and there are times when researchers as well as the researched are vulnerable. The paper suggests, therefore, that the subjective experience of women reseachers is vitally important and must be acknowledge. How they engage in interviews with other women and the personal relations which develop are also part of ‘putting the subjective in the knowledge’ and have implications for feminist research.