Interviewing elite women professors: Methodological reflections with feminist research ethics

Abstract

Interviewing senior professors in universities is a common qualitative method of conducting leadership research on higher education. Like other types of elite interviews, researching established scholars can create multiple challenges for emerging researchers because of power differences. Feminist research ethics offer principles to tackle these issues by focusing on power, boundaries and relationships in the research process. This study is based on the methodological reflections of my doctoral project: investigating intellectual leadership of 22 women full professors in Hong Kong. I argue that feminist research ethics benefit new researchers by addressing some dilemmas of elite interviews, including how to define elite participants, how to gain access, how to prepare for interviews and how to interact effectively. This empirical study sheds light on feasible practices of interviewing elite women scholars from the perspective of feminist approaches.