Dissertation Diaries I: To accept tea or not to accept tea
For my dissertation I interviewed women in farming and quickly recognised the perils of participants’ homes! Although this setting for conducting interviews was chosen for convenience and comfort to participants, it presented various issues which I had to negotiate and reflect upon in light of power relations and their impact on conclusions.
We all know home is not a neutral context but a space
awash with memories, emotional stimuli and personal possessions familiar to the
inhabitants. Therefore, this represents a certain level of trust and commitment
on their part for allowing a researcher to integrate within their daily life and
home. Participants made me feel welcome, almost like a friend, by offering tea
which forged an intimate scenario perhaps detrimental to the maintenance of some professional distance. However, the rapport necessary
for qualitative study was established in other ways by attentive listening and
body language throughout the interview, as well as accepting the presence of
various pets in the room! Similarly, emphasising my farming background and
wearing casual clothing alluded to sensitivity to participants’ circumstances and
sought to minimise the discrepancy in social characteristics such as age and
education. To that end, there is much more to qualitative study than using open
questions as a means to balance power as I found situational dynamics to be more diverse in
character!
My personal
safety was particularly relevant, given the remote locations of the farms and
private environment of a participant’s kitchen. However, I soon found the
research setting was not always private as some spouses would enter the room and interact with the
interview questions. Given the threat to privacy, I had to stop the recording
which meant the discussion became fragmented at times. Otherwise the
participant may have withheld information that they did not wish others to
hear, for example an experience of prejudice, which would have compromised
validity.
Conducting my interviews has opened my eyes to how far
the relationship between researcher and participant must be closely considered
and negotiated, not only prior to research but during data collection. It all
boils down to reaching a compromise on hospitality in line with the research
agenda and relations.
I am struck by the potential strife caused by the acceptance of an 'innocent' cup of tea: tea and the empowerment of women are certainly ripe topics for discussion! From the outset this drink has had a role in defining and identifying women and their place in society. An expensive and exotic product from the Orient, tea entered into the English genteel family home in the 18th century. A less 'intoxicating' and therefore much safer beverage for women than coffee, it became one of the only areas in which women were given control: the lady of the house in charge of the key to the tea cabinet. Whereas men inhabited the male space of the public coffee houses, women dominated in the domestic sphere, making female-only tea parties a space for private discussions, free from the eyes of men. Husbands at the time began to fear for their place in the household, and anxiety over the dangers of tea to the patriarchy can be seen in the literature circulating at the time. In the context of this study, it is interesting to see how the women you interviewed still use tea as a method of portraying power and possession. In a modern context these women are not necessarily conscious of the implications of their offering, and are more likely obeying social norms relating to courtesy and amicability. But it is striking to note that no matter how 'empowered' women are supposed to be in the modern age, old, deeply ingrained cultural traditions trap women in a cycle of domesticity.
ReplyDeleteI had never previously considered the history of tea and gender to be of sociological interest so thanks for sharing those insights! I can definitely see the offering of tea linked to social norms and as an act in attempt to make both host and guest feel more at ease.
ReplyDelete