Interviewing men

Abstract

This article describes the masculinities engaged by male leaders of an Australian agricultural organization, CANEGROWERS, during interviews with a young, female, doctoral student. The masculinities displayed involved the men emphasizing their heterosexuality, presenting themselves as powerful and busy, and positioning themselves as having expert and superior knowledge. It is argued that important in shaping the interview process was the gender focus of the research topic itself, as well as the gendered research context of CANEGROWERS. Thus, to understand the impact of gender on interviewing, we need to go beyond a simple focus on the gender of the interviewer and interviewee, and undertake a more sophisticated analysis which explores the intersection of the mediating influences of ‘who, whom, what and where’.