Men Pause and Women Talk Too Much: Power and Gender Negotiations in Eliciting Data during Semi-Structured Interviews

Abstract

In most interpretive research, the relationship between the researcher and the participant is sometimes blurred, and the control over the research is often shared by both of them. Not only does power is manifested in all human interaction and all relations, but it is also changeable according to the situation in which they occur. In other words, power is not maintained by one person and resistance usually exists where power is found. However, researchers ought to be conscious of the power hierarchy that exists between the interviewer and the interviewee, which can be minimalized by practicing reflexivity which can minimize objectifying the interviewee and achieving self-awareness throughout the study. This interpretive research study reflects on the process of conducting the interview rather than simply analysing the interview data. I have adopted a phenomenological approach in this study in order to understand the participants’ own experiences and own description of the phenomena. The data revealed that the the power struggle during the interview with the two male interviewees was more prominent than with the female participant. The interview situation resulted in power tension instances between the interviewer and the participants.

Keywords: Gender negotiation, Power struggle, Reflexivity