Sexual Harassment and the Construction of Ethnographic Knowledge

Abstract

It is not uncommon for women researchers to experience sexualized interactions, sexual objectification, and harassment as they conduct fieldwork. Nevertheless, these experiences are often left out of ethnographers’ “tales from the field” and remain unaddressed within our discipline. In this article, we use women's experiences with harassment in the field to interrogate the epistemological foundations of ethnographic methodology within the discipline of sociology. Based on more than 50 qualitative interviews, we examine three “fixations” of contemporary ethnography that inform women ethnographers’ understandings of and reactions to harassment in the field. These fixations are solitude, danger, and intimacy. Our data show that these fixations not only put researchers in danger but also have implications for the construction of ethnographic knowledge. They contribute to silence surrounding sexual harassment, and are motivated by and reproduce androcentric norms that valorize certain types of fieldwork. We argue that acknowledging and analyzing experiences with harassment and other unwanted sexual attention in the field is part of a more fully developed understanding of ethnographic research itself.

Signaling Safety: Characterizing Fieldwork Experiences and Their Implications for Career Trajectories

“…Additionally, the temporally bounded nature of field research may increase the risk of poor regulation of this professional space (Howell ; Sharp and Kremer ). Yet the fieldsite is a primary workplace for many researchers and is characterized by the same professional and interpersonal challenges of any other academic setting, including risk of personal injury, psychosocial stress, and sexual harassment and assault (Hanson and Richards ; Ice, Dufour, and Stevens ). Therefore, fieldsites ought to be accorded the same considerations and expectations of professional conduct as other workspaces.…”

Scared to Death: Reflections on Panic and Anxiety in the Field

“…That seems doubtful. Perhaps the lack of engaged conversation on researcher mental health is because research in social sciences relies on masculinist (Hanson and Richards ) and positivistic assumptions. The presumed researcher is a male, who is rational, and able to deal with dangerous and fear‐producing settings; we can be fearless, sane, and brave in order to produce “truth.” Or, perhaps admitting mental health issues is “bad impression management.” Though I have been somewhat able to talk to my participants, colleagues, and friends about experiencing debilitating panic attacks, I've been reticent to fully divulge what a problem they've been.…”

“…Furthermore, the fact that widely championed ethnographic work many times takes place in dangerous settings can create precarious situations for some women (Hanson and Richards ).…”

We, too: contending with the sexual politics of fieldwork in China

“…In the disciplines that make up China Studies-particularly those that engage ethnographic methods-discussions are beginning about sexual harassment and assault during fieldwork (Hanson and Richards 2017;Kloß 2017;Pollard 2009). There are few accounts, however, of the specific sexual politics that shape fieldwork in China (with the exceptions of Mason 2013; Gaetano 2016).…”