3613 The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, vol.4, Issue 7, July, 2017 The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention 4(7): 3613-3618, 2017 DOI: 10.18535/ijsshi/v4i7.07 ICV 2015: 45.28 ISSN: 2349-2031 © 2017, THEIJSSHI Research Article Researching Men and Women: Field Experience of a Female Researcher Tanzina Choudhury Department of Sociology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh Abstract: This article focuses on the experience of a female researcher, researching on both men and women in Bangladeshi society. It has been well documented in academic literature that in qualitative research data collection is a joint effort between the researcher and the research participants and hence, the role of a researcher is of critical importance. This article argues that the subject position of a researcher can both be facilitating and constraining in various ways. This article, however, also demonstrates that the differences on the basis of gender, class, power and education between the researcher and research participants pose many challenges and ethical dilemmas. Again these challenges and dilemmas help researchers to develop useful strategies to resolve these issues. Keywords: men, women, interview. Introduction Earlier studies (e.g., Reay 1995; Rahman 2010; Kakuru and Paradza 2007) show that conducting empirical research in most cases generates formidable challenges and obstacles to a researcher. And this is particularly so when qualitative frameworks are employed. Studies (e.g., McKee and O‟Brien 1983; Smart 1984; Arendell 1997; Kilkey 2010; Reay 2010; Lee 1997) reveal that gaining access to the participants, building the relationship of trust, interviewing a male participant as a female researcher and vice-versa and moral dilemmas usually are the most pertinent issues encountered by a researcher. My experience to explore women‟s (and men‟s) lived experience regarding gender relations and the constructions of masculinity and femininity in contemporary Bangladesh seeks to address the issues mentioned earlier. Forty female and 20 male participants were purposively selected for this study. All my female participants were construction workers and male participants were either construction workers or husbands of female construction workers. Both female and male participant construction workers were recruited from Amberkhana, Madina Market and Niorpool point of Sylhet city. Gaining access, building rapport and constructing women’s experience My experience of researching female construction workers shows that if the participants are directly approached, they are reticent, not wishing to talk to an unknown person without prior permission of their sarders 1 or the influential people of their community. However, I never involved sarders in selecting my participants. They (sarders) introduced me to 1 or 2 female construction workers and told them about my intention to talk to them, than I continued in my own way. In the effort to familiarise myself with the female construction 1 Sarders are the construction sector middlemen workers and to establish contact with the participants, I spent some time in the congregating points where the participants wait every morning to find work. I visited some of the participants‟ houses and the construction sites where they work. I visited one of the construction workers congregating points and approached one of the participants each morning and subsequently talked to him/her. At the beginning some of the participants seemed hesitant about the nature and aims of my work. Women were aware of their own well-being and as a reflection of it they seemed to be very cautious while talking to unknown people in private places. However, after my meeting with one or two participants, things changed dramatically. All of the female construction workers of Amberkhana, Niorpool and Madina Market point who became aware of me and my research, showed an interest in talking to me. My participants told me that they talked about me among themselves and also encouraged their co-workers/friends to share their experiences with me. Some of my participants even suggested that their husbands come and talk to me if I am interested. Wives‟ enthusiasm to send their husbands to talk to me emanated from their wishes to know what their husbands think about them and was also guided by the hope that their husbands would be more understanding about their (wives‟) plight if they discuss their lived experience with me in greater detail. My own subject position as a middle-class, educated woman played a significant role in earning this acceptability among female construction workers and even their husbands (see Hammersley and Atkinson 1997; Coffey 1999). The participant construction workers and husbands of female construction workers never turned down my request to have a conversation. In cases where this was not possible due to their work schedule (that had been fixed prior to my approaching them), they promised to talk to me again at a mutually convenient time.