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.