Methodology in Women's Oral History

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Methodology in Women's Oral History

In Woman’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, editors Gluck and Daphne Patai use contributors from many backgrounds including: anthropology, history, folklore, literature, psychology, sociology, linguistics and speech communication. The articles deal with interview techniques, interpretive models, cross-cultural interviewing, and advocacy. Many of these disciplines have utilized oral history as a way to conduct research, but all note problems faced when collecting and interpreting the voices of women. The authors depict and analyze lessons learned from doing feminist oral history and the implications it has on the future studies.

Kathryn Anderson, a women’s studies professor, was one of the lead historians for the Washington Women’s Heritage Project. This project was state-funded and received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Washington Commission for the Humanities to create a traveling exhibit and hold educational workshops which would document “women’s lives in interviews and historical photographs.” Although the general task was to collective life histories, Anderson saw it as an opportunity to capture the role of women in farming communities. The interviewers were given a crash course in methodology and interview techniques and also given a copy of Gluck’s “Topical Guide for Oral History Interviews with Women” to reference. After the interviews were collected, Anderson and her staff began processing the narratives. They were surprised to see that many of the interviews lack the “detailed discussions of the web of feelings, attitudes, and values the give meaning to activities and events.” Also, the interviews did not “corroborate the satisfactions and concerns” so prevalent in diaries and letters of women.²⁵ Anderson states that although there were constraints within the project, women interviewed were not given a chance to explain and reflect on events or activities they deemed important, nor were they able to express their feelings about such events or daily activities.²⁶ Anderson consulted a friend and psychologist, Dana Jack to help her reformulate the interview process and goals and to incorporate a methodology that allowed for women to explore feelings during the interview process.²⁷

Even though Anderson’s work did not focus on the women’s movement in particular, some of the narratives voiced the injustices felt by the women within the farming communities. Elizabeth (last name not given) was a co-partner with her husband on their dairy farm, but also was still solely responsible for all the household work. She says: “This is what was so hard, you know. You’d both be out working together, and he’d come in and sit down, and I would have to hustle a meal together, you know. And that’s typical.”²⁸ Elizabeth’s response also illustrates the importance of asking for elaboration on responses after such “spontaneous” reflection. Anderson explains that the interview should go beyond just collecting data, but instead, it should be interactive to allow for questions and clarification.²⁹

References

(25) Kathryn Anderson and Dana C. Jack, “Learning to Listen: Interview Techniques and Analyses” in Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, ed. Sherna Gluck and Daphne Patai (New York: Routledge, 1991), 12.

(26) Anderson and Jack, 13.

(27) Anderson, Armitage, Jack, and Wittner, 105.

(28) Anderson and Jack, 15.

(29) Anderson and Jack, 23.