Interviewer and Interviewee Relationships Between Women

In this research note, I readdress the discussion of relationships in women interviewing women initiated by Ann Oakley in 1981. On examining existing feminist literature on interviewing relationships, I seek to further explore the differences of power relationships between women interviewers and interviewees. Based on my own experience of interviewing peers – academic mothers in both China and the UK – I argue that both the interviewer and interviewee’s perceptions of social, cultural and personal differences have an impact on the power relationship in the interview, which is not simply an issue of quality of the interview, but the dynamics between the interview pair.