The Impotence of Earnestness and the Importance of Being Earnest: Recruiting Older Men for Interview

Abstract

This chapter focuses on some of the challenges I encountered when recruiting participants for a study about the involuntary childlessness of older men. In particular I reflect on the different methods and strategies I employed to respond to the challenges I faced when trying to access and recruit participants. Integral to that examination are my reflections on the experience of the different approaches taken as well as the power dynamics inherent within the process and how they influenced it.

The chapter begins with a brief outline of the research topic and the personal and academic motivations that inspired it. The discussion that follows focuses on my experiences of accessing and recruiting the men and is chronologically ordered to give context to the actions taken. I conclude with some reflection on the successes and failures of accessing and recruiting men for the research, providing critical discussion of sensitive qualitative research with older men

Keywords: Ageing, Aging, Masculinity, Gender Dynamics, Sensitive Research, Recruitment, Snowball Sampling, Posters, Flyers, Website, Twitter, Social Media, Risk, Qualitative Research, Men, Radio Interview, Personal Networks, Newspaper Adverts, Power, Ethics