Critical reflections on ethnographic data collection in the highly gendered environment of male football

Abstract

This article critically reflects on the methodological implications of indexing gender and sexuality by research participants when conducting ethnographic fieldwork in explicitly gendered contexts, particularly where notions of hegemonic masculinity are prevalent. Research suggests a number of potential challenges for female researchers, such as being patronised and subjected to sexist attitudes, among others. In order to gain a greater understanding of these methodological challenges, this study draws on over 60 hours of audio-recorded and observed interactions among male professional and elite football (‘soccer’ in US English) players and coaches before, during and after football matches and trainings. The main focus is the kinds of gendered and sexualised identities participants regularly assign to the female researcher in discursive interaction. This shows that, in ethnographic research projects, the construction of gender and sexual identities is potentially always relevant to data collection and research outcome.