Researching female professors: the difficulties of representation, positionality and power in feminist research
This article draws on findings from my doctoral research to exemplify some of the difficulties I encountered when interviewing 20 female professors1 and subsequently writing about their life histories. In this article, I discuss how I addressed the issues of representing and positioning my participants, and I reflect on the power dynamics present in the research process. The article contends that by drawing on Bourdieu and Wacquant's [An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] understanding of reflexivity and feminist interpretations of their work including McNay [“Gender, Habitus and the Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits of Reflexivity.” Theory Culture Society 16: 95] and Adkins [“Reflexivity Freedom or Habit of Gender?” Theory Culture Society 20: 21], valuable research can be produced, despite the difficulties. A related aim of this paper is to reflect back after four years in an academic post on my position as a novice researcher, and some of the associated issu...