The Safety Dance: Confronting Harassment, Intimidation, and Violence in the Field

This paper discusses how gender dynamics may put female researchers at risk of harassment or even violence from participants, research assistants, or bystanders when conducting fieldwork. Based on a review of the existing literature on fieldwork safety, as well as the authors' own experiences i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological methodology 2006-01, Vol.36 (1), p.317-327
Main Authors: Sharp, Gwen, Kremer, Emily
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Disciplines
Anthropology
Females
Feminist anthropology
Field research
Field study
Field work
Fieldwork
Gender
Gender roles
Harassment
Interviews
Intimidation
Masculinity
Men
Methodology
Qualitative research
Research methodology
Research methods
Researchers
Sexual Harassment
Sexual orientation
Sexual violence
Social research
Social sciences
Sociological research
Staying Alive and Other Practical Problems of Data Acquisition
Violence
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Description
Summary:This paper discusses how gender dynamics may put female researchers at risk of harassment or even violence from participants, research assistants, or bystanders when conducting fieldwork. Based on a review of the existing literature on fieldwork safety, as well as the authors' own experiences interviewing male participants, the authors argue that attention to protecting subjects of research has led the social science community to largely ignore the possibility that in some cases, researchers themselves may be at risk. The paper concludes with suggested strategies for increasing researcher safety during data collection, as well as a call for issues of fieldwork safety to be more openly discussed by supervisors, professors, advisors, and others who guide novice researchers through the fieldwork process.
ISSN:0081-1750
1467-9531
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9531.2006.00183.x