Feminist Qualitative Research in the Postmodern Era: Integrating Theoretical Approaches
(Carmel Seibold, Australian Catholic University, Victoria.
email: c.seibold@patrick.acu.edu.au)
Abstract
This paper explores methodological issues in analysing data about single women’s experiences of midlife and menopause, and the processes of managing health and shaping identity at this significant life stage. It addresses questions such as, to what extent the research met the criteria of feminist research. As well it describes a process of arriving at a method of data analysis that took into account both the role of discourse and the phenomenology of lived experience in the construction of identity.
Developing a methodology for certain types of qualitative research is an ongoing process. The nature of the problem to be investigated is fluid, only incompletely determined at the beginning of the study, and subject to change as the study progresses. The design cannot therefore be fully specified in advance, but rather emerges over time. The process followed, while by no means linear, involves making decisions about what Higgs (1998) has described as the research frame and research strategy. Within the research frame Higgs includes the internal context relating to the researcher’s personal frame of reference or philosophical and ethical stance and the external context involving the research question or topic and theoretical framework or paradigm. The research strategy involves making decisions about the research goals or purpose, the research approach and data collection and analysis methods.
This paper focuses on the research frame
and the research strategy and describes a process in which I developed methodology
and techniques as I interacted with the data and the literature in a study of
single midlife women. I am using the term methodology as defined by Harding
(1987, p 3), that is “a theory and analysis of how research does or should
proceed” as opposed to method which refers to “a technique for (or way of
proceeding in) gathering evidence”. While most qualitative researchers develop
methodology as the study progresses not all adequately describe the process
leaving the reader often with a sense that everything progressed in an orderly
and sequential way. Social researchers, however, are increasingly becoming
aware of how the researcher's self is actually part of the research process
(Ellis, 1991; Kleinman & Copp, 1993), and feminist researchers emphasise
exploring both the social construction of the research encounter and the
research process as a lived experience (Oakley, 1981; Reinharz, 1992). Hence
the emphasis in feminist writings on the personal pronoun.
My initial interest in midlife women, and
menopause in particular, began in the mid 1980s when my older sister asked me,
as a nurse and a sociologist, what I knew about menopause. My response was
"very little" but I resolved to learn more. Over the next few years,
despite engaging with an increasing body of medical literature, I became aware
of the dearth of recent studies that were contextual in nature and went beyond
assessing the safety or efficacy of various hormone treatments. During this
period of increased interest I experienced a relatively early menopause at the
age of 41. This event added a personal dimension to my interest in menopause.
After further review of the literature it appeared that what was needed was a
qualitative study which sought to provide an understanding of how women in
Western societies negotiated midlife and menopause. I found after reviewing the
available literature that I was particularly interested in studying single midlife women. The reasons were
that they constitute a significant number of Australian women in midlife (one
fifth of the population between 44 and 54, ABS, 1993) and much of the writing
on menopause to date has assumed that all middle aged women are heterosexual
and have partners. I was a single, divorced midlife woman myself, and although
my experience was similar in some respects to that of my partnered friends it
was also qualitatively different.
Early
reading in the area of menopause indicated two particular problems. Studies
provided only a static picture rather than capturing a process of change, and
researchers tended to ask participants questions pertaining only to the
researcher's interest. I considered it important in any study of midlife to
follow the women's progress for a period of time. I decided to interview the
participants twice, twelve months apart, and ask them to keep a diary in the
interim. Interviews and diaries were seen as providing the most interesting and
rich data about the way in which midlife women negotiated midlife and
menopause. An open ended interview schedule was designed since I wanted to
ensure that the information I obtained was as untainted by my opinions and
experience as possible. The request for journal keeping reflected the same
rationale. The goals of the study were to provide research data on single
women's experiences of midlife and menopause and to make those experiences
available to other women.
I set out to interview women who were
single, that is had either never married, were separated, widowed or divorced
and not currently in a partnership, defined as living with a partner, were in
the midlife age group (40 to 55), and were menopausal. Midlife is popularly
considered to begin at age 40 and statistics indicate that normal, as opposed
to premature menopause, occurs between the ages of 39 and 59 with the average
age being around 50 years (McKinlay, Biafano, & McKinlay, 1985; Walsh,
1978). Taking HRT or having had a hysterectomy was not a bar to participating
in the study. Here, as at several stages, I learned from my data. After
interviewing two women I realised I had inadvertently set up a situation
whereby only menopausal women experiencing problems might be interviewed. The
criteria for selection were changed accordingly, to seek women who were self assessed as midlife and
subsequently identified at interview as pre menopausal, perimenopausal or
menopausal.
The participants eventually recruited were aged between 44 and 55 at first interview. All the women were Australian born and English speaking. Because the recruitment was primarily via networking there was an unintended, although not unexpected bias towards woman with Anglo- Celtic middle class backgrounds. Eleven women had never married and were childless, one woman was widowed and eight women were separated or divorced. Eight of the previously married women had children.
My initial research questions were
concerned with identifying the impact of menopausal symptoms, and the debate
surrounding HRT, on the lives and decision making processes of single midlife
women, I therefore sought to establish the discourses of menopause women were
exposed to in the academic, medical and popular literature. Magazines and
popular texts for the period of the study were reviewed, as were mainstream
medical sources.
This process of review and analysis of
the representation of menopause in the popular media occurred concurrently with
interviewing the women. Initially the interviews were very open ended but
became more semi structured as I developed a fuller sense of relevant issues.
My initial interview question was a broad one seeking to identify perceptions
of midlife and menopause held by single midlife women. All the interviews
commenced with the one open-ended question "Tell me what it means to you
to be a midlife woman." Probes were included to ensure that certain areas
were covered in the interview, such as whether or not the participant was
taking HRT. More probes were added following subsequent interviews. For
example, the first woman interviewed talked at length of needing to come to
terms in midlife with the anger she felt toward her mother who had been dead
thirty years. As a result of this interview a probe "relationship with
mother", was added. In subsequent interviews relationships with sisters
and family members were seen as significant and probes covering family
relationships were included.
In making the request that the women keep
a diary for 12 months I wondered how willing participants would be to do so
considering the nature of the highly personal experience. I decided that I
would make it as non-threatening as possible by not including complicated
instructions on diary keeping. I provided a diary with simple instructions
pasted in the front cover which were as follows
The weekly entry in your diary
should only require about 5 to 10 minutes of your time. You are of course
welcome to make entries at other times. Entries in the diary are to enable you
to record your symptoms, feelings and health practices (including ways of
relaxing and enjoying life!), and particular concerns or comments. I am also
interested in dreams that you may see as relevant to your life stage.
The diaries sought to trace the women's
experience of midlife and menopause over a period of twelve months, including
the influence of the various discourses surrounding menopause and midlife
health. The request to record their dreams was the result of a midlife friend
reporting an increase in dreaming while menopausal, and also the Jungian
literature on dream analysis for making sense of life experiences, including
midlife. Seventeen women kept a diary.
Interviews tended to be relaxed and in
the form of conversations, although I monitored and limited my input in order
not to dominate the process. The first interviews varied between 1-2 hours and
the second, between 30 minutes to one hour. All women were given a written
explanation of the study and signed a consent form at the first interview. Part
of the explanation included the usual assurances that tapes and diaries would
be kept in a locked drawer. Diaries would be destroyed, or returned to
participants after transcription if they expressed a wish to have them back.
Pseudonyms would be used when transcribing data, thus assuring anonymity and
confidentiality. I reiterated this explanation at the second interview and the
women were given the opportunity to mark anything on the first transcript they
did not want included in the analysis.
After conducting the first five
interviews issues of an ethical nature beyond the mere formalities of normal
ethical requirements began to emerge. The first of these was the realisation
that the empathetic relationship which was set up during the interviewing
process meant that participants revealed highly personal aspects of their lives
far and beyond my expectations, and quite possibly theirs too. On two occasions
the interview precipitated what could only be termed a cathartic experience as
a result of a highly emotional revelation. I have written elsewhere of issues
surrounding data collection in qualitative research studies from a feminist
perspective (Seibold et al. (1994). A feminist research approach, which
advocates interaction between the researcher and the participant and a willingness,
by the interviewer, to invest personal identity in the relationship (Oakley,
1981; Pence & Shepard 1988) can be as problematic as the so called
objective approach. Whose interests are being served and who holds the balance
of power? It appeared that in the situation as established here the balance of
power was with the interviewee during the making of the data, but I as the
interviewer/researcher had the power of analysis afterwards. While the
interviewer/researcher and the interviewee participate in a power relationship
during the interview process, after data collection that power in terms of
"apparatus of truth" referred to by Foucault (1980, p. 132) becomes
problematic, since as the researcher I construct my interpretation of events.
The highly personal information revealed
in several interviews raised the vexed question of informed consent. Despite
clearance from the university ethics committee I found myself asking how
realistic was it for me as a researcher to think that a signed consent was
really consent to, in a sense, invade people's lives? Also to what degree is
consent prior to an interview really informed consent? A strategy that I
developed was to have the participants read the relevant form prior to the
interview and sign the form after the interview had taken place. A further
strategy (in keeping with a feminist approach to research) was to have the
participants read the transcripts of the first interview at the second
interview. Fortunately no one withdrew consent to use the data, a concern that
I had since at this stage who owns the data? I took the position that since the
women were free to withdraw consent at any time during the research, withdrawal
of consent at this stage meant that data would not be used. I also considered sharing
some of the conclusions reached and the way in which the data was to be
presented in the final report. I found, however that apart from a few
generalisations this was not possible. Acker, Barry and Esseveld (1983) suggest
that a study based on feminist principles is adequate if the active voices of
women are heard in the research account. As well as the women's voices I also
saw the inclusion of contextual elements in the final report as important such
as reasons for choosing HRT. For example, the choice of one woman to take HRT “because I was desperate and would have done
anything” contrasting with decisions made by another woman who considered
taking it as a form of prophylaxis in order not to "end up like the woman in the milk ad.”
On the two occasions in which the
interviews proved cathartic they took on elements of a therapeutic
relationship. One woman revealed that she had been a victim of child abuse and
another became very distressed when speaking of her relationship with her
mother. After the interviews I thought about when and why an interview might or
should be terminated. If you terminate an interview are you retreating from a
relationship established? What responsibility do you have as a researcher to
suggest or facilitate counselling? While in the two cases referred to it did
not reach this stage, there was cause to consider the possibility, and whether
this would constitute further invasion of privacy. As a feminist researcher
where is the line between acting as a concerned woman and taking on a
therapeutic relationship. Is there such a thing as the need for a
"specialist" in this context? As a nurse I was not unfamiliar with
the role of counselor but did not feel that it was appropriate in this context
to assume this role. I did, however, use a degree of professional judgement in
assessing the degree of distress experienced. I also ascertained that the women
who had been a victim of child abuse had been seeing a professional counselor.
Ethical and the methodological issues
alike raise the questions of knowledge construction and control. I monitored
the power dynamics in order to provide a basis for drawing adequate conclusions
about the findings. I found that knowledge construction occurred within the
interview, since a number of women saw it as a way of gaining information and
dealing with their fear and anxiety. Whenever information was shared I was
always careful to emphasise what was my opinion, differentiating opinion from
specific information where a source could be cited. Providing information was
always a balancing act. If there was a request for specific information, and I
considered I had information of value, it was usually provided at the end of
the interview
The 40 interviews were transcribed in
full but only sections of the diaries were transcribed. I decided not to
transcribe the diaries in full but rather carry out initial analysis and later
transcribe sections of the diaries relative to relationships of contents to
categories identified in the interviews. Any new insights were also noted and
categorised. I had a large body of data of 2000 transcribed pages, and 17
diaries varying in length between 2000 and 15000 words. The diary of 15000
words fortunately was on computer disc. The approaches to diary keeping varied,
reflecting individual commitment and organisation.
It is a widely held rule of qualitative
research that data collection and analysis must occur simultaneously ( eg. Glaser & Strauss, 1967). But like many
rules pertaining to method this fits poorly with reality. I found data built up
and many months would elapse between periods of concentrated analysis. However,
I always made it a point to listen to the tapes within 24 hours of the
interview and read the transcripts immediately they were transcribed. I also
did some preliminary coding directly on the transcripts at this time.
To develop a data storage and retrieval
system I used a qualitative analysis computer program QSR NUD.IST
(Non-Numerical Unstructured Data, Indexing, Searching and Theorising) (Version
4). QSR NUD.IST supports both coding and retrieval and theory building
processes (Richards and Richards, 1991, 1994). Because long periods of time
often elapsed between opportunities for concentrated analysis, keeping track of
analysis using a manual system would have been a nightmare. But I also found
that the computer could not solve all my problems. Returning to analysis after
several months I found it necessary, not only to familiarise myself with the
index system, but also to re-read the transcripts in order to contextualise the
data. The effect of time in providing distance from the data was both negative
and positive. It was negative in terms of the time it took each time to pick up
the threads and it was positive in terms of being able to view the data with
new insights. For example the data relative to the pre-midlife and
pre-menopausal body at first appeared extraneous but with time and fresh
insight it was seen as highly relevant to the way midlife women experienced
their bodies, and constructed identity.
In initial analysis I drew on grounded
theory techniques as described by Glaser and Strauss (1967), Strauss, (1987),
and Strauss & Corbin (1990), as well as descriptions of inductive data
analysis by Lincoln and Guba (1985). I did a line by line analysis of each
transcript, a form of coding described as open coding, where concepts are
identified in terms of their properties and dimensions and similar concepts are
then grouped to form categories (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 65). The categories I created in the
early stages were mainly descriptive and the early interviews determined the
most obvious categories such as physical symptoms of menopause. The codes
derived from each interview transcript were compared, one with another, as part
of what Glaser and Strauss (1967, pp.101 -116) refer to as "the constant
comparative method of analysis." An early index system included the
following categories, self assessed menopausal stage, physical and
psychological symptoms of menopause, body perception, body out of control, body
changes, women's knowledge base and anticipation of menopause, seeking help,
sources of information, perceptions of risk, HRT reaction, awareness of
transition. Later categories I constructed in the process of direct questioning
of the data and review of relevant literature. For example, after initial
coding I asked the question "why are most of the women talking at length
about experiences of the body prior to menopause". This led to an
exploration of the literature around reflexivity, identity construction and
embodiment, most particularly Giddens’ (1991) theory of the reflexive project
of self “whereby self identity is constituted by the reflexive ordering of life
narratives” (p. 244.). Giddens sees integrating bodily experiences, both conscious
and unconscious as essential to this process. Having constructed a category
" past bodily experiences" I then linked "past bodily
experiences with "factors influencing identity construction" in order
to further explore reflection on past body experiences as influential in
identity construction in midlife.
As analysis proceeded, I saw the need to
place more emphasis on the way the women constructed or talked about the self,
including the embodied self. A type of analysis identified by Potter and Wetherall
(1987, pp. 95-106) as fitting under the broad rubric of discourse analysis
seemed appropriate, that is one that gives added emphasis to gendered
subjectivity, as well as the influence on the women of social and scientific
discourses in circulation. With this in mind categories were refined and
further developed. I was able to collapse codes and categories, rename them or
shift them to other parts of the index system. When I reached the stage of
identifying broad topic codes or major categories with sub categories being
attached below, these were then ordered into chapter headings. The data
relating to midlife women and work was initially one category, but was later
split into two to become a major category in terms of the impact of menopause
on the working lives of women, and a category relating to negotiating work as
part of a midlife identity. Following Lincoln and Guba (1985, p. 341) I saw
this process as a construction rather than a theory.
Writing was a fragmented activity and I
experienced a sense of frustration that, owing to time constraints, I could not
engage more consistently with the data. I did, however, try to record any
insights in memos. As the data firmed I sought patterns by constructing
matrices summarising such things as menopausal symptoms and response to
symptoms. Huberman and Miles (1994)
describe the interaction between display and emerging written text thus:
The display helps the writer
see patterns; the first text makes sense of the display and suggests new
analytic moves in the displayed data; a revised or extended display points to
new relationships and explanations, leading to more differentiated and
integrated text and so on (p. 433).
This process continued once writing began
in earnest. The first part of the analysis relating to managing health was
relatively easy to conceptualise. However analysis of subsequent chapters
consisted of writing numerous drafts. Writing helped to make links between
categories and see new ways of conceptualising topics. Richardson (1994, p.
516) in referring to this activity says "by writing in different ways , we
discover new aspects of our topic and our relationship to it. Form and content
are inseparable." Writing drafts was also aided by my ongoing engagement
with a range of literature and encouraged me to ask further questions of the
data. Returning to it to confirm new directions meant a continued interaction
with the literature and the data. I was also fortunate in having one of the
study participants prepared to read and comment on the construction of the
thesis, most particularly the analysis chapters. This form of member check
proved encouraging at my darkest moments, as well as going some way to assuring
me that I had done justice to the women's stories. As a feminist researcher I saw
this as particularly important.
Is there a feminist method? This question
took on significance as I began to grapple not just with the ethical issues
already outlined, but also with methodological issues in research from a
feminist perspective. Much writing on feminist method authoritatively asserts
what is required for feminist research. A typical check list of what
characterises feminist research is as follows: the principal investigator is a
woman; the purpose is to study women and the focus of the research is women's
experiences; the research must have the potential to help the subjects as well
as the researcher; it is characterised by interaction between researcher and
subject, non hierarchical relations and expression of feelings and concern for
values (one or all may be incorporated); the word feminist or feminism is used
in the report; non sexist language is used; the bibliography includes feminist
literature (Duffy, 1985).
At first glance the requirements sound
easy to fulfil and as a feminist I thought how can I do otherwise. As already
discussed the requirements became less self evident as I embarked on a project.
As the challenges of the project were faced, the contradictions became evident.
Check lists such as the one identified appear to present a single
methodological dogma, the only way of doing feminist research. Acknowledging
that feminist research seeks to uncover the pervasiveness of gendered thinking,
which uncritically assumes a necessary bond between being a woman and occupying
certain social roles, does not necessarily help to uncover the ways in which
women negotiate the world and the wisdom inherent in such a negotiation. Rather
than a check list approach to feminist research and theory, I sought a more
general interpretation. Lengermann & Niebrugge - Brantley, (1988) provided
this by setting only three broad goals. Firstly, women's experiences are the
major object of investigation; secondly the researchers always attempt to see
the world from the vantage point of a particular group of women; and thirdly
they are critical and activist in efforts to improve the lot
of women and all persons.
While qualitative methods that
acknowledge women's frame of reference as contextual and relational may often
be the most appropriate research approach, what is crucial is that the method
chosen must be the one most likely to yield fruitful answers (Du Bois, 1983;
Reinhartz, 1992). The philosophical orientation of the researcher then becomes
the most significant factor, and quantitative methods may be equally
appropriate and serve to deconstruct empirical research within a patriarchal
mode (Harding, 1986). I considered that a qualitative approach was the most
appropriate method for research on single midlife women since the object of the
research was to construct a picture of how women in the late 20th century
experience midlife and menopause. Previous research into menopause has often
been within fairly restrictive guidelines and the research design has yielded a
narrow perspective. Early medical research, particularly, oversimplified
women's experiences by examining only those aspects of women's lives that
corresponded directly to the norms of men's development and experience (see
Davis, 1980). Single women were virtually ignored. The aim of my research was
to redress this imbalance by focusing on women's experiences, specifically
single women's experiences.
The project met two of the criteria for
feminist research as outlined by Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley (1988).
Women's experiences were the major object of the investigation and the goal was
to capture the reality of the experience from the vantage point of a particular
group of women with emphasis on the subjective and contextual orientation. More
problematic was the third criterion, critical activism and whether or not
studies such as this will improve the lot of women. Klein (1983, pp 90-92)
says, that it is in recognising
"an individual woman's personal problem as similar to many women's
personal problems" and seeking to provide the insiders' perspective that
converts a study "on women” to a study "for women”. The study also
needs to be read by the women it concerns. Publishing, particularly in the
popular media, is one way this may be achieved.
Unlike the apparent sequential ordered model of a research process previously referred to, method making and data exploration happened together. As I grappled with questions such as what constituted feminist method, and carried out analysis I was exploring contemporary social theory, including feminist theory, and debating the extent to which a feminist poststructural approach to theorising should direct my analysis. After completing two thirds of the first round of interviews I was becoming aware of the part played by discourse in the construction of the subject, and the value of studying social texts from the point of view of how those texts (the participants' interviews) were constructed and how they reflected their sense of self. Since social texts not only mirror but also actively construct a version of things, the diversity of experience of the 20 women interviewed appeared increasingly to be related to age and experience and the choices the women had made. These choices appeared in turn to be influenced by discourse.
A significant factor influencing life choices and
decisions made was the ways in which the women understood sex, gender,
femininity and midlife and menopause. These derived from a range of sources and
forms of knowledge production and were far from coherent. The data increasingly
appeared to require analysis in terms of discourse and a poststructuralist
feminist approach to analysis offered valuable insight. Always suspicious of
"the flavour of the month" I made a point of reading and attending
conference presentations where the authors identified their position as
poststructural feminists. At times I found the analysis abstruse, and I was not
sure that this approach met my need as a feminist researcher to be relevant and
accessible. Weedon (1987), and others (Bordo, 1993; Hollway, 1984) offered an
approach which I found to be appropriate for what was emerging in the data,
that is, an enhancement of Foucault's interpretative analytics which looks at
the relationship between subjectivity and meaning, meaning and social value,
the range of normal subject positions open to women and how power and
powerlessness may be invested in these. In the analysis it was becoming apparent
that when women resist a particular subject position, they do so as a result of
exposure to an alternative discourse, such as that offered by feminist
discourse. After further reading and reflection the theoretical framework
chosen incorporated Giddens’ (1991) notion of the “reflexive self” which
emphasised agency in decision making, as well as drawing on feminist
poststructuralist interpretations of the discursive and embodied construction
of self.
My philosophical approach to data
collection and analysis was influenced by writers in feminist methodology (Du
Bois, 1983; Harding, 1986, 1987; Klein, 1983; Oakley, 1981; Reinharz, 1992;
Stanley & Wise, 1983, Stanley, 1990). I needed a method of analysis that
acknowledged discourse in the construction of subjectivity and was therefore
attracted to a form of discourse analysis described by Potter and Wetherall
(1987, pp. 95-106) that concerned the language of the self or subject. They
argue that any socio-psychological image of the self is linked to linguistic
practices used in everyday life, and analysis of participant interviews must
pay attention to how the individual constructs or talks about the self. Potter
and Wetherall view the methods of conceptualising the self in different
linguistic practices as having vital consequences for the positioning of people
in society. These methods are not neutral or without impact, but rather produce
senses of self that may be negative, destructive, oppressive, as well as senses
which might change or liberate (Potter & Wetherell, 1987, p.110). The main
object in this form of analysis is to displace attention from the self as
entity, and focus on methods of constructing the self. In the past, a specific
theory of self, such as trait theory, role theory, or theories from the
humanistic tradition which emphasise the quest for self-fulfillment and self
actualisation, usually directed the analysis. Rather than one approach
directing the analysis of discourse, all become relevant, but only in terms of
a number of possible methods used by participants for making sense, or creating
a life narrative.
As I applied these principles to
analysis, that is, directed attention to the way the women constructed a sense
of self, I became uneasy about a tendency to sideline descriptions of
phenomenological experience. With further analysis the significant role of
embodied experience, including the lived experience of menopause , as well as
reflexivity in identity construction became apparent. The writings of Dorothy
Smith (1987, 1991) and Barry Turner 1992) proved valuable in my attempts to
integrate two apparently diverse approaches. Smith in particular helped me deal
with the tensions inherent in fore grounding language, while also wanting to do
justice to embodied experience, as well as identifying how discourse analysis
from a feminist perspective differs. In Texts,
facts and femininity (1991, p. 1)
Smith contends that bringing an understanding of contemporary history and
society, or sociocultural influences and women's experiences "into
coherent relation to one another" is essential to engaging properly with
either. She views sociology to date as creating "a construct of society
that is specifically discontinuous from the world known, lived, experienced and
acted in" (p.2). She stressed the need to develop a sociology that
emphasises a mode of inquiry that begins "where people are" rather
than where we think they might be. Turner (1992), while not specifically
addressing the need to integrate approaches within one mode of inquiry, was useful
in arguing for a sociology of the body that takes into account both social
constructionism, post structuralism and the phenomenology of lived experience.
He sees value in integrating apparently disparate theoretical approaches, and
argues for a degree of theoretical reintegration and rapprochement that will
"permit and promote a diverse tradition of social theory within a common
framework of interest in the body" (Turner, 1992, p. 49). Feminists'
interpretation of Foucault's theory of power/knowledge and the construction of
subjectivity, along with insights from Smith and Turner, then, shaped analysis,
particularly with respect to the interplay of women's experiences and
sociocultural influences or discourse.
Both Smith (1991) and Potter and
Wetherall (1987) view the text as the means by which the analyst gains insight
into the world of the participant, and interviews are analysed for their
textual form and representation of participation in social relations. The
researcher as analyst recognises that the participant is the active writer of
the text and is drawing on her/his experience to construct the text, just as
the analyst is drawing on her/his experience and knowledge in reading and
interpreting the text. The researcher as analyst then is interested in
constructing the way the participant co-orders experience and brings into being
the social self. Smith (1991, p.10)
like Weedon, also makes the point that from a feminist perspective the
research aims, without a totalising theory, to explore "the relations of
ruling", organising peoples’ lives. This term is used to identify any
number of theoretical positions, including that of Foucault, that emphasise the
historical and sociocultural influences on participants.
Smith further identifies ways discourse
analysis from a feminist perspective is different to other forms: First, the
emphasis placed on the researcher working from the insider's standpoint;
second, that the objectives of the research aim to explore the actualities of
experience, rather than those of a generalising science, and; third, the
analysis of the microsocial becomes the means of accessing extended or macro -
relations organising society. As already referred to, Oakley’s (1981)
discussion was particularly valuable in articulating the "insider"
quality as central to feminist research methodology. The insider's perspective
comes from the shared experience of being a woman, that is, "a feminist
interviewing women is by definition both 'inside' and participating in that
which she is observing" (p. 57). As a single Anglo-Celtic midlife woman I
shared, gender, culture and economic status with the majority of women
interviewed. At the same time I was conscious of the need to create distance in
order to ensure that my own experience was not directing the process. One of
the ways this was achieved was by asking a set of questions identified by
Christman (cited in Hall & Stevens, 1991). They are: How is this woman like
me? How is she not like me? How are these similarities and differences being
played out in out interaction? How is that interaction affecting the course of
the research? How is it illuminating or obscuring the research problem?
Denzin and Lincoln (1994, p.11) see what
they call the "Fifth Moment" of qualitative research, with an orientation
towards more action and activist oriented research, more social criticism and
more social critique, shaped by critical theories, feminism and postmodernism
as having arrived. Qualitative researchers can no longer purport to directly
capture the lived experience of individuals, but need to see their
representation in terms of a social text or "tales of the field" (Van
Maanen, 1988). Denzin (1992) considers that a more self consciously
"interpretive" approach to analysis can be achieved by adopting insights
from poststructural philosophy within the postmodern. He sees this as ensuring
that the study of meaning making in social interaction will be connected, not
just to discourses in circulation, but also to the communication industry and
the way in which the "interacting individuals connect their lived
experiences to the cultural representations of those experiences" (p. 96).
My study therefore attempted a critical interpretivism by drawing on insights
from feminism, and poststructural currents within postmodernism. The
theoretical framework incorporated Giddens’ notion of the “reflexive self”
emphasising agency in decision making, as well as drawing on feminist
poststructuralist interpretations of the discursive and embodied construction
of self.
In the first section of the analysis I was concerned to explore the
impact of menopause on the lives of the women, while also paying attention to
the discourses influencing constructions of menopause and midlife health. In
the second section I was particularly interested in the way in which bodily
experience and sociocultural discourse interacted in the construction of self.
In the final analysis section, the microsocial was seen as a way of both
reflecting the way in which theories of self are used by participants in
constructing identity in midlife, as well as interpreting from their accounts,
the macro-relations organising society.
I have demonstrated the way in which
developing a methodology for a study of single midlife women was an ongoing process.
A qualitative method from a feminist perspective was seen as appropriate from
the beginning, and the emphasis on a form of discourse analysis focusing on
construction of subjectivity was fitting in light of what emerged in the data.
Using grounded theory techniques helped make sense of the data initially, and
reading about inductive interpretive approaches, as well as approaches to
discourse analysis, helped with later analysis. The degree to which the nature
of the problem was fluid is apparent in the way in which data analysis
revealed, not just the expected processes of managing health, but also the way
in which the women experienced their bodies and reshaped their identities in
midlife. Developing a theoretical framework was therefore contingent on data
analysis.
From
initially taking for granted my philosophical and ethical stance, grappling
with ethical and methodological dilemmas led me down a number of paths that
aided me in identifying what it means to be a feminist researcher in the
postmodern era
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