Hannah Budge – Gender Interview

“Well, my PhD research is looking at women in the agricultural industry in the Scottish islands. I am very interested in that area, especially gender in rural spaces."

“Well, I am from the Shetland Islands, a small island in Scotland, and I did my undergraduate at Aberdeen University. I remember reading a paper during one of my undergraduate modules, and it was about gender and masculinity in rural areas. I thought, ‘I could relate to a lot of that stuff,’ and then I remember looking at the date and seeing it was written in 1996, the year I was born. That got me thinking ‘why are there still these issues in rural areas and why are they still seen as masculine spaces?’. So that sparked my interest. I remember that being quite like a moment where I was like, ‘oh, you want to look into this further, look into why this is the case, what has changed’.”

“Yeah, my supervisor, Professor Sally Shortall, has researched women and farming across Europe and the UK. She did an extensive report with the Scottish government, and she was part of a research team that looked at women in agriculture and the barriers they face in the industry. It was kind of from that research that I did some work experience with her during my masters as a research assistant, and she let me come to some of those meetings for the task force, and that cemented my interest and led on to me applying for the PhD through the ESRC NINE DTP scholarship."

"Well, I'm currently completing my PhD research. I'm in my third year, so I'm currently analysing my data and writing up the different chapters. I've found it interesting; I'm finding it a reflective process. I had to do my research throughout Covid, which brought up other issues in island studies, such as internet connectivity. I had to do some of my interviews through the phone because people didn't have a good enough internet connection. In one interview, the interviewee commented that they were balancing on the back of their couch just to get a signal. I'm supposed to submit this year which I'm on track with, and I hope I'll be able to publish my PhD. That would be the ultimate goal."

"I found it okay. I offered it to all of my participants. Then, I offered to either interview on zoom or over the phone because my research period was from 2020 until 2021 during my second year when there were lockdown restrictions. I felt that I didn't want to travel to the islands because I knew that I didn't want to bring Covid onto the island or anything, because that obviously could impact the community, so I felt it was much easier than trying to negotiate the various restrictions. I decided to do to make a blanket decision of doing interviews remotely, which has some disadvantages. I didn't get to see the areas, so I'm looking at the different islands, especially in the western isles. However, as I said, it had come up with different things which I hadn't considered when I first started the research, like internet constraints. People have to negotiate the internet, even with the different family members. For instance, in one of my interviews, they said they had to turn their camera off. They had to go around their various family members and be like, ‘I am on the internet right now. Can you come off?’. So that kind of interests, the negotiation between that kind of bargaining for the internet. There have been some disadvantages to doing online research, but it has also brought up new issues that I hadn't considered before that will make quite an interesting part of my PhD. "

"Probably just from my perspective of me doing the interviews from Shetland, my internet isn't that great at home. I live in quite an old house, so I have big thick stone walls, but at some points, I had to have my phone propped up in my window and to try to get a 4G signal to have internet. Sometimes, I would keep a bit of a reflective diary to keep myself on track and see how I was going throughout my research process. I was looking back over that yesterday because I'll maybe include some parts of that into my methodology. At one point, I hadn't had internet for about two weeks, and that day, my mam had confessed to thinking that she'd broken it further because she pressed all the buttons on the router. I had my phone propped up in my window, and I was trying to supply internet to my laptop and my mom's iPad. I'd almost forgotten how chaotic it could be without that kind of internet connection. So, it definitely increased my phone bill having to buy all the data."

"Definitely. Not with my research, but I did some research with my supervisor. We did a focus group with a group of women involved in the agriculture industry. During the first lockdown, I believe, we did the focus groups. That raised many issues to do with home schooling and childcare. Many women commented that they have really felt that they had regressed in their standing. That people were coming in and expecting them to be out on the farm working with the sheep then come in still make all the homemade meals. Then, me and my supervisor wrote a book chapter about that, which I can send to you. It's looking at care, coronavirus and gender. Even if, for instance, someone was a farmer then they would still expect to come in and make meals. So, even if they are in a household with other men, they are expected to run the household and manage the emotional needs. There's a lot of mental health issues that came with the coronavirus lockdowns. In that research, we found that a lot of that was fallen to the women to deal with."

"Absolutely! I'm actually in SAGE (School of Science, Agriculture and Engineering) and SNES (School of Natural and Environmental Sciences). I definitely think it is really important. Even just being a different school and discussing gender, how it relates to my research and discussing it with people. For instance, I'm in an office with economists and agronomists. Even listening to different research and speaking to people who maybe don't consider gender in their research is a really interesting process too. Sometimes, I think it can also maybe make them think about things that they wouldn't have normally done. It is important because it does affect many things that we do in our everyday lives. I think it is absolutely important that it is interdisciplinary because it does relate to the masses amount of research and that it is good that it is not just in one corner. It should be interlaced throughout lots of research because it affects many aspects of our daily lives. "

"I think that it is the interdisciplinarity. For instance, I went to the Gender Agenda workshop, and there were people from many different faculties who came together, and I think that shows it's essential for gender research. There are many people on that mailing list and lots of people who then consider gender throughout their research, and I think that's important at Newcastle. It's great to be part of that network."

"II would say definitely look at the [gender] website and definitely become part of the network. The mailing list is really great because that highlights different events that are going on. For instance, I actually took part in the master’s gender, and I came I was the runner up for that master's prize. That was great because obviously, I wouldn't have seen that if I wasn't on the email list. I think it’s an important thing to be part of. Also, don't be afraid to email people. I think I've emailed maybe a few people from that list before and everyone has always been welcoming, so don't be scared to reach out either through emails or Twitter. There's a good side and a bad side to Twitter, but I think most people, if you reach out to them, are really friendly and open and welcome, and people are always happy to have a chat."