These boots are made for walking: A reflexive analysis of negotiating unavoidable risks during fieldwork as a woman

Abstract

In the summer of 2023, I (Author 1, lead researcher, young adult, cis female, Mexican) began fieldwork in Saltillo, Mexico, researching the public transport infrastructure in relation to women’s differentiated mobility and their perception of safety from gender-based violence. During fieldwork, I was catcalled, followed, and harassed on multiple occasions. In this paper, Author 2 (research assistant, young adult, cis male, Mexican) and I explore issues of researcher’s positionality and vulnerability. We engage in a dialogue to provide a retelling of events, and we reflect on our differentiated experiences of fieldwork due to gender-based violence and the aftermath of being harassed while conducting research. We reflect on our differentiated degrees of vulnerability and perceptions of the city while walking the streets of Saltillo and how that reshaped our understanding of the research process. I highlight the importance of talking about these types of experiences openly in academia and queer/feminist activism, especially so when combined methodologies reformulate the relationship of the researcher with the research(ed). In this paper we critique the current fieldwork preparation processes in place at higher education institutions that focus mostly on safeguarding participants, arguing that current ethical approval forms and travel risk assessments do not provide a space where true reflection on risks and vulnerabilities can occur, therefore failing to prepare researchers for the impact that fieldwork can have on us. We conclude that academia should foster and incentivise spaces where real reflection on the researcher’s positionality can occur without the limitations of administrative processes.