Women and anthropologists in west Africa: Comparing two research experiences

Abstract

When we first met, at the beginning of our Ph.D. among the books of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) library in Paris, we spent a lot of time talking about our research, especially focusing on methodology. We were curious about our respective ways to cope with fieldwork, our strategies to work difficulties out, our daily ‘African life.’ We realised that our gender played a crucial role in the fieldwork, even though, as noted by other women anthropologists (Journet-Diallo 1999; Monjaret et Pugeault 2014), other personal characteristics, such as age, origin and marital status were contributing to shape the ethnographic relations with our interlocutors. In this chapter, through the lens of our own research experiences—Ester Botta Somparé worked on education in a Guinean pastoral society (Botta Somparé 2015), whereas Mara Vitale dealt with religious authorities in Burkina Faso (Vitale 2009, 2012)— we will try to sort out the importance of the anthropologist’s gender for her ability to observe and integrate into the society she studies.