“What’s She Doing Here?!”: Negotiating Gender Identity and Harassment in Gendered, Sexualized, and “Taboo” Research Spaces

Abstract

Scholarly inquiry into the experiences of women researchers engaged in ethnographic fieldwork is a growing area of study. While important to feminist criminology, most of the literature addressing this topic comes from sociology and anthropology. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic research in the United States, conducted in gendered, sexualized and “taboo” spaces, this study examines two women’s experiences. Findings indicate that women researchers engage in significant emotional work to not only gain access to these research sites and spaces, but they rely on several different techniques to mitigate potential harm to their person, including situating the experience outside of the research.