Violating Gendered Rules: Data Collection and Analysis
In this project, you must undertake the following steps:
1) Select a gendered behavior that you
a. currently do – and stop doing it.
b. currently do not do—and start doing it.
2) Choose at least 3 different settings in which to enact the behavior you have selected. This method is called participant observation—you use settings to which you already have access, and the people in those settings are your subjects.
a. All settings should involve several people including yourself.
b. These 3 settings should be different from one another.
c. At least one setting should include complete strangers.
d. At least one setting should include people to whom you are close.
3) Without announcing that you are going to do it, violate the same gender rule in each setting. Act as sincerely as possible during this incident. You may tell people what you are doing later, but not before or during.
4) Observe how people respond and attempt to make sense of the situation. You may use a confederate to help observe, but that person must act sincerely and not disrupt or contribute to the interaction in any way.
5) After leaving the setting, record field notes that document in detail what occurred. In writing field notes, follow these rules:
a. As soon as possible after leaving the setting (the “field”) go somewhere private and write down everything—including conversation, setting, style of dress, everything. May draw a layout of the room, if it’s relevant. Who did what? Dump all of your data. You must do this as soon as possible because you will forget.
b. Be thorough—don’t leave anything out because you may miss an important pattern later. Be detailed and concrete. Don’t say, “she got angry at a comment that was made and left.” Tell what the comment was—paraphrase if you have to, but it’s better to quote. Talk about her facial expression, her body language, reactions by others. Use the words the people use—if they cuss, cuss. Need to get the flavor of the site. Takes a great deal of time.
c. Write your field notes when you are awake, and write up each setting in one sitting. You can always add more later—write (and save) to a computer file so it’s easy to edit.
d. Don’t analyze your data yet—don’t attribute meaning to people’s actions—just write their actions. If they tell you what they mean, then write that down. You are merely recording what happened at this phase, not trying to make sense of it.
e. Do record your impressions though, just write them separately—what’s your feeling about what’s going on in the setting?
6) After writing field notes on your five settings, you will comb your data for a pattern. The major question you will be answering is this: What do your data tell us about the hegemony of gendered rules, at least within your social network?
7) You will make an argument about what your data tell us about the hegemony of gender. You will back your argument up with examples from your data.
8) You will write up your argument following a standard procedure for report writing. This format is as follows. You need to develop several different sections. You must use headers and subheaders to organize your paper (You can use a published journal article as a guide in formatting).
a. Introduction: in this section, you discuss the key ideas for your research project—how gendered rules are hegemonic. Be specific enough to define your terms, but don’t give away the punch line yet. You could lay out the paper to come, and you may also foreshadow your findings. This should be at least one paragraph and no more than one page. Refer to some key sources that help define your terms and lay out relevant theories—use the ASA citation style, as used in Disch.
b. Methods: This section will cover many issues. First, discuss the method that you used to collect data—how did you do what you did? Use relevant subheaders, like Settings, in which you discuss the choice of each settings and describe the settings in detail.
c. Analysis: This is the section that describes what you found. You will use inductive analysis to come to your findings. That is, you will read and re-read your data, taking note of patterns in the ways that different people reacted in different settings. What do these reactions tell you about your gendered behavior? What do they tell us about the hegemony of gender? That should be your focus. Use concrete examples from your field notes to back up your claims.
d. Conclusion: Here is where you tell us the punch line—the “So what?” You report the major point(s) learned about gendered rules. You tell how your project contributes to a larger understanding of gender in society. You cannot generalize because the method is too limited. But you can look to how your data contribute to existing theories on gender.
Your paper should be about 6 pages long.
It must be typed, double spaced, with 1 inch margins. Use an 11-12 point font only. There is no need to put extra spaces between sections—your headers and sub-headers will serve as guides.
Turn in your paper and your field notes