When Women Study Men: Gendered Implications for Qualitative Research

As a White cis female researcher, I am often asked about my capacity to conduct meaningful, credible, and safe research with men. Questions often center on my experiences in men’s spaces, ability to understand or represent men’s experiences, and safety protocols to mitigate against looming threats of male-perpetrated violence. I am curious about how my gender continues to be a point of contention in my role as a qualitative researcher. In this meta-analysis and commentary article, I explore my experiences in relation to other female researchers who study men and who have published articles reflecting on gender norms in research practice. With examples taken from the contexts of fieldwork, qualitative interviews, and presentation of findings, this article illustrates the nuanced and often invisible power and gender dynamics that inform how methodological decisions are made, what is found or synthesized from qualitative data, and how problematic social norms are reinforced. I argue that, within the context of research about men and masculinities, researchers must be responsible for reflecting on and confronting gender norms as a part of their intersectional experiences of privilege and oppression. Specifically, researchers can use reflexive practice and field journaling to better understand how gender norms and uneven power dynamics are introduced to, co-constructed within, and generated from qualitative studies. These reflections and concerted efforts to confront broader social injustices imbedded in research practices are necessary for researchers to produce sound data and promote reciprocal research benefits. Without such efforts, researchers may reinforce the same structures of power and stereotypical gender norms that they aim to disrupt in their scholarship.