Lottie Rhodes – Gender Interview

“So, I’m specifically interested in women's health, and I work within a feminist epistemology, feminist methodology and general feminist praxis. I frame my research interests around gender, but the research I’m doing is actually down binary gender lines because my participants understand their experience as women who menstruate against men who don't menstruate. It is important to remember, however, not all women menstruate, and not all menstruators are women. So, in terms of gender this means like the gender dysphoria experiences by trans people who menstruate, non-binary and gender non-conforming people who menstruate and their experiences. Periods are so gendered towards women and women being feminine and female. But from a feminist standpoint perspective, and grounding my research in participant lived experience, my gender research focus is on cis women."

“You know, I think it might have been in the second year of my undergrad when I started learning about feminism and learning about gender inequalities at work. I became passionate about dismantling the patriarchy and then learning about the history of feminism, black feminism, and how we can be better feminists! So, yeah, I guess my interest in gender came from learning about feminism as both a political movement and academic theory, epistemology, methodological approach.”

“I'm writing up my PhD at the moment. My PhD looks at women's lived experiences of period poverty in Newcastle. So, period poverty is interesting because it's an intersection of gender inequalities, poverty, the legacy of austerity, and geographical inequalities. The women I spoke to are from disadvantaged and underserved communities and areas of Newcastle. And period poverty is really interesting because when working with gender in period poverty, it’s complex because physiologically-speaking, menstruation and the anatomy to menstruate is female, but gender is not associated with sex. And it's like picking that apart without disregarding women's experiences of periods because a lot of the women I spoke to see their menstruation as being a woman. Many people would think that and think we’re conditioned to believe that, and it's not necessarily that simple – as I was saying earlier about people who don't identify as women who menstruate and how that creates gender dysphoria for them. So yeah, that's my PhD at the moment.

I spoke to 38 women about their experience of period poverty and menstrual inequality more broadly, but I'm also a research assistant on a project at the business school that looks at hashtag related phenomena, and the hashtag is #fitmom. So, we're looking at social media users who use #fitmom, and it's mainly mothers on Instagram who use it and how they negotiate this, how they use it to feel empowered and good about themselves. They're a mother, and they're active, fit, physically fit, and active like that. Not like aesthetically fit, but also because this hashtag may be used in more detrimental ways for women. I don't know if you've seen those posters of ‘oh, what's your excuse’, with this muscley mum and her seven children. It's not great. It's not the most positive and supportive way of using the hashtag. So that's another gender-based project that I'm working on at the business school."

“So, for my PhD, I used the relational interviewing approach. It was an interview, but I always conceptualise it into a conversation with purpose because you're talking about something, but it's very much a conversation. It's very much a two-way street in how I do it because one of the methodological centre points of feminist epistemology is breaking down research and research hierarchies. One way of doing that within the research environment is, I believe, by just having a conversation. I'm a woman; I get periods. I'm speaking to women who get periods. Let's talk about it. Whilst I don't have all the same experiences, by any means. I've got some pretty gross stories about my period, and let's share it, laugh, and talk. So yeah, relational interviewing and I did them over the phone because I did my PhD research at the height of the pandemic. I did it from January to April 2021, when we were in the second national lockdown.

I also did an ethnographic participant observation, volunteering in a local women's organisation and food bank. That allowed me to be on the ground. I started volunteering when I was figuring out what methods to use because I was in the process of dramatically changing my research direction because of the pandemic. I was going to work with schoolgirls in schools, but the schools weren't letting anyone in. Teachers were really stressed and panicked. Students felt like they were catching up. There was a lot of pressure in that environment, so I didn't go there in the end. I thought that I was going to use Zoom interviews or something because that's what everyone else was doing at the time. Then I got on the ground and was doing my participant observation and realised all these women actually, Zoom was not an appropriate method to use in the context that I was going to be talking to women in, and I found that all the women have telephones, most of them have smartphones. So I then did telephone interviews, and they were really successful. I don't know if there's an anonymity side of it where you can't they can't see me, and we're talking about a very sensitive topic. I don't know if there's that sort of side. I don't know if me sounding like a young woman down the phone helped. Also, I just think there's nothing more powerful than a group of women getting together and talking about their periods in the right environment. I feel like many people could be quite comfortable talking about it, but that links back to my relational interviewing, where it was a conversation. I was also sharing my gross period stories. Then, for my research for my assistant role, we will be using interviews and diaries at some point.

We're still figuring out the approach for that, but as a feminist method, I find solicited diaries in whatever form they take—whether it's a written form, a WhatsApp diary, or an audio or video diary – the literature suggests that it's quite a cathartic method, and it allows participants to go away and think and reflect on their experience and their thoughts, feelings, opinions in their own space in their own time in their headspace. They can really reflect well if participants engage with it. It's quite time-consuming, but I'm excited to use diaries. I wanted to use it in my PhD, and it wasn't appropriate for the context that I was researching in the end. It gives them that moment in time which, I guess, often if you're so busy and you have so much on your plate, you might not necessarily have that time. Also, I think it's helpful because, in interviews, you're often thinking retrospectively, and if you have the moment in time to write it down in the diary, you'll probably get a lot more. You'll be able to reflect on something that's just happened that you might have forgotten about by the time you get into the interview.

“Yeah, I think it is really important. I'm an interdisciplinary researcher, I think of myself as situated between sociology and human geography, but I'm also reaching into public health research, psychology research, education research, media research. Menstruation in the media is growing. The research on that is growing. In terms of gender, it's interesting because I actually don't conceptualise my research as gender research. So I'm thinking about these questions but I don't think about it purely in gender terms because I'm looking at class and poverty and gender is a part of it as well, but I'm also looking at public health. I think it's really important. I think every discipline has a different way of working and a different way of—even if it's very subtle—they have different scholars working on different things. So, for example, menstruation research which is the research that I think of myself doing, is heavily based in development research. There's one academic article in geography about menstruation about period poverty. Then there are pockets of… there’s a sentence here and there saying about how geographies of the body and fluids and menstrual fluids and stuff like that, but there's no actual research about menstruation in geography which for me is then bringing class and poverty and gender into it. If I'm situated in geography, I have to be interdisciplinary to bring in menstruation research, sociology research about class and poverty, and public health research about good menstrual health and women improving women's health.

Also, linking that to improving trans healthcare experiences and people who don't identify as women. If they menstruate, they will have menstrual health conditions solely focused on women's healthcare, but if you don't identify as a woman, do you feel welcome in that space? Do you feel that healthcare is accessible? That's a problem that we need to work on. Unfortunately, I can't truly focus on it in my research. I'll definitely talk about it, but it's just not the focus of what I'm looking at—you can't do it all. All of the menstruation research—sociology, geography, public health—are all doing different things, and they're all not necessarily focusing on gender or class or poverty or whatever. Bringing them all together just helps. You have a critical analysis to substantiate your argument, which is what academic research is about. Say, if I was just doing it in geography, I wouldn't engage with the knowledge outside of geography, which means I'd be missing swathes of research that incorporates gender and periods, and why do they not research periods in geography. Those are interesting things to think about. As I said, I don't actually think about myself as doing gender research, but obviously, it is really important because I'm looking at women. "

“Yeah, I think it is really important. I'm an interdisciplinary researcher, I think of myself as situated between sociology and human geography, but I'm also reaching into public health research, psychology research, education research, media research. Menstruation in the media is growing. The research on that is growing. In terms of gender, it's interesting because I actually don't conceptualise my research as gender research. So I'm thinking about these questions but I don't think about it purely in gender terms because I'm looking at class and poverty and gender is a part of it as well, but I'm also looking at public health. I think it's really important. I think every discipline has a different way of working and a different way of—even if it's very subtle—they have different scholars working on different things. So, for example, menstruation research which is the research that I think of myself doing, is heavily based in development research. There's one academic article in geography about menstruation about period poverty. Then there are pockets of… there’s a sentence here and there saying about how geographies of the body and fluids and menstrual fluids and stuff like that, but there's no actual research about menstruation in geography which for me is then bringing class and poverty and gender into it. If I'm situated in geography, I have to be interdisciplinary to bring in menstruation research, sociology research about class and poverty, and public health research about good menstrual health and women improving women's health.

Also, linking that to improving trans healthcare experiences and people who don't identify as women. If they menstruate, they will have menstrual health conditions solely focused on women's healthcare, but if you don't identify as a woman, do you feel welcome in that space? Do you feel that healthcare is accessible? That's a problem that we need to work on. Unfortunately, I can't truly focus on it in my research. I'll definitely talk about it, but it's just not the focus of what I'm looking at—you can't do it all. All of the menstruation research—sociology, geography, public health—are all doing different things, and they're all not necessarily focusing on gender or class or poverty or whatever. Bringing them all together just helps. You have a critical analysis to substantiate your argument, which is what academic research is about. Say, if I was just doing it in geography, I wouldn't engage with the knowledge outside of geography, which means I'd be missing swathes of research that incorporates gender and periods, and why do they not research periods in geography. Those are interesting things to think about. As I said, I don't actually think about myself as doing gender research, but obviously, it is really important because I'm looking at women. "

“Great question. Well, you know, that kind of links to your question before. I think what's unique about gender research in Newcastle is that it is interdisciplinary, and literally, you'll find someone researching something to do with gender in any department, any school, all the faculties. There'll be someone there. I'm a researcher in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, but I'm working on a project in the business school that's looking at gender. So they're looking for expertise in qualitative methods about gender and from the sociology and geography reading literature about gender, bringing that to the business school. I think, at Newcastle, that the interdisciplinarity of it, and researchers are working in their schools and disciplines just because that's where your contract is, but then we come together. I remember the Institute for Social Science did Gender Agenda, and it brought like people there was someone from computer science, and they were there interested in gender. Newcastle University provides a good environment and encourages that, but obviously, as an institution, it has its problems, and the gender pay gap is very real."

“I feel like I am very much still in need of a lot of advice. Do what you're interested in. If you're interested in gender, don't be scared of doing it. Be a pioneering researcher in an area of gender studies that isn't being done. So I'm doing a PhD, and a PhD is about an original contribution of research and for me, it's both in geography and sociology and menstruation studies. I can pioneer new gender, class and health-focused research pieces because period poverty in the UK is very under-researched. There are like two publications about it. One's a report, and one's an academic article. In geography, menstruation isn't researched. The sociological research is based in the US—it's fascinating—and it's all about menstrual stigma and menarche, which is like your first period, so the experience of starting your period when you're 11 or whatever.

Also, don't be scared to talk about your research in environments where you might not feel as comfortable or where you wouldn't normally talk about it. I research periods, so when a cis man asks me what my research is about, I'll say, ‘oh, yeah, I'm researching period poverty’. They often think it's about poverty in Victorian times, or they mishear me and think I said ‘period property’, like Edwardian houses. So they asked me what's about, and I go into full gory detail about periods and period poverty and menstrual inequality, and wow, they’re not expecting it! But they were educated. It’s my duty as a feminist to talk about periods!"