Researching South Asian women: issues of sameness and difference in the research process

Abstract

This paper explores issues of gender, racial identity in the research process, control and ownership of data and how this affects research. It also looks at the influence of outsider/insider status in carrying out research. The article draws upon research carried out in East London on South Asian women. It argues that our racial identity can and does affect the research process in which women who have some shared experience with researchers may be more willing to speak to researchers who reflect this. Furthermore, the control and ownership of the research project and data can also affect our relationship to the project and often black/Asian researchers may be recruited to be interviewers in studies that are not always controlled by them. When considering our outsider/insider status within the research process, this is influenced by our own personal experiences, our ‘race’, gender and other physical characteristics in ways in which we may have no control