By Feng Chen, 09/11/2018.
Being a Woman in the Field
Thanks to India China Institute’s summer grant, I was able to conduct my first field study overseas. In contrast to taking classes at school or writing research papers in a library, field trips offer me a great chance to take a closer look at myself as a woman and a researcher. Namely, I don’t see much “inconvenience” as a woman when I am doing research on campus. Yet once I step out of school, I experience far more frustration, fear, and concerns than I expect. Thus I realize that gender equality should be discussed and improved not only on campus but also off campus.
My flight to Delhi was landed at about 9:30 PM. After I lined up to pass the customs, it was nearly 11 PM. In order to avoid taking Uber or taxi alone in the late night, I asked a local friend to pick me up at the airport. I was very lucky to make friend to this local young man, who offered me a lot of help even before my field trip, such as finding a good place to live, obtaining a local sim card for my cell phone, and seeking informants for my research. My local friend insisted in sending me to the apartment I booked on Airbnb, meeting my host, and exchanging business cards with him. My host happened to be a middle-age man in his turban. Yet, hearing the conversation between my friend and my host about my stay, I seemed like a child who cannot take full responsibility or take care of myself.
In the morning of the next day upon my arrival, I went to a market near my apartment to search for food, following google map. Surprisingly, the market was full of men, but not so many women. When I withdrew money from a bank, I only saw male employees. Whereas in China, retail banks are more likely to be women’s places, where you can see visibly way more female employees than male employees working. Moreover, when I entered a fruit store, I saw only a male shopkeeper and a cashier. So as the bakery store, grocery store and pharmacy. Without seeing women in public space, I felt nervous and uncomfortable. Where are the women? What are they doing? What social roles are they playing and how such social roles have been changed in the past decades? Since then, I paid special attention to the women in public space and brought up the questions about women and gender to my informants.
In the following weeks, I met my informants mostly in the daytime, in order to avoid outing at night. One day after finishing my interview with an informant, she invited me to an event to introduce more potential informants to me. I was very glad to follow her to a private house, full of young college students and professionals. Many of them were exactly the people I am looking for, namely, those returned from the United States with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. I had a nice talk with them, introducing my study and collecting their contact information. When the event was over, several participants decided to have a drink together afterward elsewhere. I was attempted to join but it was getting dark outside and I decided to give up. I shook their hands when I said goodbye and emphasized on following up by emails and whatsapp. That was a difficult moment when I had to give up a chance to further observe my informants, establish the network and strengthen the trust, because of my safety concern as a woman. That was the moment I felt weak and frustrated. I realized that we were still far from gender equality if women were still in fear rather than empowered.