In-order to attain results which correlated with the aims of her work, Oakley carried out her study on a sample of forty housewives. There age ranged between twenty to thirty and all participants were mothers of at least one child under the age of five. As this type of research method was applied, random samples were not used to select participants. Likely respondents were selected from the medical records of two general practitioners. The doctor was questioned as to whether the participants had any reason concerning there health which could excuse them from participating in the research sample. This condition was used in order to obtain a reasonably identical sample.
Many problems were encountered by using this method. The sample size which was originally seventy-one had reduced due to the ethnic groups of the patients being controlled. As the respondents details were taken from the medical card, many of them had moved and the new address had to be followed up. The interviews lasted on average two hours so took only one sitting to complete. In order for Oakley to find what the housewives thought of housework, participants were asked to rate themselves on a scale of satisfaction. However this approach has the problem of the Oakley’s interpretation as the respondents may use different calculations whilst making there judgments.
Criticisms were made for using such a small sample as the results may not generalize to people who were not interviewed. However Oakley believes that ‘statistical representation is not assured by the means of large numbers’, and gave examples of the problems which occur whilst using large samples.
Liz Kelly also used in-depth interviews in-order to get the required response for her research. In-order for Kelly to create an interview guides which were appropriate, she carried out four pilot studies with friends. The outcome of the pilot studies showed that if the women had time to reflect after the interview had been carried out, they would add more to the answers previously given, which would result in the end findings being more accurate. After practical developments, the concluding draft of the interview guide asked questions which started with the participants contemplating on childhood, adolescents and adulthood experiences. Opinions were then asked on how women would try to prevent sexual violence and there future plans.
Kelly advertised and gave a number of talks on sexual violence to determine the sample she needed. Ethical procedures were carried out by sending a letter to each of the applicant’s clarifying the aims of the project. Problems occurred with contacting some of the women who had volunteered, as many had changed there minds. A voluntary sample was used, which was limited because it was self-selected. The interviews were conducted in communities with small ethnic minorities. The majority of those interviewed were white British, with a minority of mixed race. A number of the women interviewed also had some type of further education.
Before the interviews were carried out, Kelly created a sample system, which involved interviewing a group of women with self confirmed experience of sexual violence and compared it with women who had not had that experience. Many of the women were not identifying there affairs of sexual violence as rape, incest or domestic violence which enabled Kelly to recognize that there are additional types of sexual violence which she had not acknowledged. As a result the sample was reconsidered. Out of the sixty women, the thirty who claimed that they had experienced sexual violence were put into three groups of ten. The comparison group of thirty was separated into two groups of fifteen, depending on whether they had or hadn’t discussed an experience they defined as sexual violence throughout the interview.
Many of the problems Kelly experienced with the application of this method were that interviewing the women and writing out the tapes was time consuming. As sexual violence is a very sensitive subject to those who have experienced it, it resulted in many of the women stopping to think for a long while. Also while in-scripting out what had been recorded in the tapes caused problems with understanding what the women actually mean, as verbal viewpoint is often expressed through emotional expression, gesture and tone of voice. In-order for Kelly to make clear what the women meant she prepared a system for interpreting emotional expression and tone of voice.
The second interview was done with only forty-seven of the participants and inquired about the women’s involvement in the study, there response after reading the transcripts and anything which they failed to mention in the interview. Ethical measures were carried out through returning the transcripts to the women in-order for them to control what the interview contained. The technique of obtaining information by evaluating the tapes was a time-consuming, so a method of interpreting answers was developed which resulted in the information being obtainable in a fairly accessible form.
There many other similarities and differences between Ann Oakley’s and Liz Kelly’s work include both writers using in-depth interviews as a method of attaining results for there studies. Both topics chosen for the studies involved women and there attitude towards certain experiences which they had encountered in their life’s. Although both studies were on personal topics, the questions raised in the interviews in Kelly’s text were detailed and likely to be more distressing therefore a voluntary sample was used. However those participating in Oakley’s study had a few conditions in-order to make the sample comparatively similar. The sample size for the studies was small, as the method used was extremely time consuming (also due to a few problems) and so an appropriate sample needed to be used in-order to gain appropriate results. The issues raised with using small samples have been explained above.
The interview’s involved using the tape recorder and then analyzing the results. However Kelly decided it would be more beneficial to her results if the participants listened to what was recorded and had a second attempt to record. This allowed the study to be controlled by the participant, which Oakley has not permitted. The method Kelly used proved to be more positive as seventy-five percent of the applicants not only remembered a lot more but also psychologically felt better. Both Oakley’s and Kelly’s approach to interviewing has been quite influential among Feminists and there ideas are widely quoted in books about methodology.
The findings on the ‘feelings of housework’ correlate with women’s attitudes towards the practice of housework. The findings suggest that there were many women who were ‘dissatisfied’ with housework. Eighty percent of these housewives experienced boredom, disintegration and excessive pace, compared with industrial workers whose work is more skilled and not as repetitive. Many complained about not socially interacting properly and so constantly feel lonely, whereas if they went out to work it would give them the chance to take on some form of social relations. The most hated part of doing housework was to be labeled a ‘housewife’, as the housewife role is perceived as having a low status. Those women who had a high status jobs in the past felt anxious about being low status housewives, and were dissatisfied with housework. Complaints about having a longer working week compared to other jobs, however the sovereignty of being ‘ones-own boss’ was favored.
Housework consists of many different tasks, and so each task had different attitudes from women towards it. Some working conditions were more pleasing to some women then others. Oakley found that many women had specific schedules which they stuck to. This practice helped women feel a sense of responsibility towards housework and establishes a way of gaining some form of emotional satisfaction. The findings on women’s ‘orientation to the housewife role’ illustrated the connection between the identity of women and ‘being a housewife’. There were many similarities and differences between middle and working class women. There wasn’t any clear class difference between the attitudes towards housework However there ways of thinking differ, where the working class tend to be more constructive and middle class more detached from there housewife roles. During the interview Oakley found that the women often wanted to ask her questions.
Surviving Sexual Violence included the results of the interviews. The findings suggested that all participants, excluding one had experienced at least three forms of sexual violence. Many of the women took long pauses as they found the experience to distressing to recollect. Kelly found that in the second meeting many of the women tended to ask questions about what other participants had recalled. Those who are victims of the assault, tend to control there lives in-order to avoid any risk of violence.
The long term effect of sexual violence, such as decreased trust came to notice when women were vary of volunteering towards the project. There were some attempts to commit suicide but all the women recovered and are continuing to survive in spite of there traumatic experience. However some of the women responded to situations were it was evident that it may lead to extra harm.
The Sociology Of Housework and Surviving Sexual Violence both used in-depth interviews; however the interview guidelines differ as both texts had different aims. The differences involved different sample selection, the depth of the interview questions, the interview guidelines and how the results were interpreted. My preferred method would that which Liz Kelly used. I believe that by her using this method her results were more accurate as on many occasions when individuals are being interviewed, they tend to forget some of the points which may be relevant to the findings of the research. Also the acknowledgement of recorded interviews being difficult to interpret, due to emotional expressions and gestures I believe would have got Kelly the results she needed, and more insight into the women’s lives then Oakley did.
