Gossip, Stories, and Warning as Care Among Women Conducting Fieldwork

Abstract (English)

Field-based research and interventions in global health and development often rely on fieldwork conducted by women. However, fieldwork methodologies were often designed by men. Fieldworkers are expected to work alone, often in remote locations, and to navigate dangerous situations independently. Although fieldworkers are trained to respect local norms and customs—and generally adhere to them—this is sometimes insufficient to overcome the fact that they remain, to some extent, outsiders in the communities where they conduct fieldwork. The risks involved in fieldwork are numerous and are further magnified for women.
Gender-based violence during fieldwork, along with the lack of support and accountability surrounding it, has been well documented(Hall-Clifford et al. 2019). The ways in which fieldwork deviates from local customs and gender norms often put women conducting fieldwork at risk. Yet, institutional support for these women remains limited. However, women often find strategies to care for one another—a form of everyday care shaped by the need to ensure both personal and collective safety while collecting data and implementing interventions. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at interventions aimed at preventing chronic malnutrition in Guatemala, this presentation examines one of the strategies used by women conducting fieldwork—gossip, stories, and warnings—as a form of care and a means of sharing experiences and advising others on how to navigate fieldwork safely.