Research Observation Site ad Focus Due
1. Where I will be conducting my observation for 8 hours will be at work. I work as a server at a high-end sushi restaurant, and this is where I will be observing women and cisgenders.
2. I will mainly focus on how customers will be interacting with women employees and cisgender employees at my job. We have a lot of female employees at my job, which will give this observation a larger field to what is to be expected. How they treat and act towards the employees that are women compared to men.
3. I selected this research focus because there are a lot of ways men and others react when they have a woman as their server. There is a lot to be observed in a restaurant where you can see a woman serving their customers. Since it is a restaurant, there are many different types of people that come in. There is diversity, which will make this research focus more interesting and knowledgeable as there will be more diverse people that dine in. This focus is where you will see a woman serving someone else as their personal table host, being under someone’s direction. Many things can occur in different ways, depending on who the customer is. Select a research site. Students should be familiar with the site and capable of observing
accomplishments of gender for a total of 8 hours.
1. Observations must focus on interactions with women, cisgender or transgender
(observation hours do not need to occur in one sitting).
2. The observation site should be something familiar to the student, easy and safe to access.
1. For example, students can observe at their home, place of employment,
neighborhood park, the grocery store, a restaurant, their sporting league, etc.
Students must be able to maintain social distance and adhere to COVID-19 CDC
guidelines. Please do not interview anyone.
2. If a student is unable to safely observe in a setting, please contact me.
3. Approach the site as if you are an alien and know nothing about it. Assume nothing and
write everything down (thick description).
1. You should take notes on the physical setting. What people are wearing, how do
they use the space, how do they interact, what do they say, and how do other
people treat them in this environment? Be particularly aware of how race, gender,
class, and/or sexuality shape the meaning of the space and interactions.
4. Use observation notes to write a paper about how women do gender in interaction with
others, intersected with other forms of difference (race, class, religion etc.), in that
particular setting.
5. This is both a descriptive and analytic undertaking.
1. Descriptive process:
1. Categorize and organize your observations. Explain how people do
gender/ do differences in this setting. Be sure to take an intersectional
approach and discuss how the doing of gender is tied up with race,
ethnicity, class, and sexuality.
2. Analytical process: Use course material/theories to help you understand what
people are doing in that setting. Discuss doing gender/difference using the
following levels of analysis.
1. Interactional Level: Use interactionist theories to explain how people do
or perform gender/difference in this particular setting/ social context.
How do people produce or challenge gender in their interactions and
through their bodies?
2. Organizational level: How do particular social and organizational
institutions impact your findings? For example, if you observe interactions
between sports teams. How does the organization of that sports institution
impact your findings?
3. Cultural Level: What role does culture play? How does culture/popular
culture provide symbolic resources for the creation of categorical
difference or sameness between men and women of varying backgrounds
(race, age, ability, sexual orientation etc.).
4. Structural level: What are the structural implications of their actions and
interactions? How does structure constrain and/or enable their
interactions? Discuss how the gendered practices of people reproduce or
disrupt the sex/gender system.
Resources
1. Paper must include a total of 8 – 9 academic sources.
1. Please be sure to use the following sources for the paper:
1. Messner, Michael A. 2000. The Barbie Girls versus the Sea Monsters:
Children Constructing Gender. Gender & Society 14(6): 765-784.
2. West, Candace and Don Zimmerman. 1987. Doing Gender. Gender & Society
1:125-151.
3. Hill Collins, Patricia, and Sirma Bilge. 2016. Intersectionality. Cambridge,
UK: Malden, MA Polity Press: 1-30.
4. Trautner, Mary Nell. 2005. Doing Gender, Doing Class: The Performance of
Sexuality in Exotic Dance Clubs. Gender & Society 19(6):771-788
2. Please use at least 4 – 5 additional academic sources for the paper
1. Do not use Wikipedia, websites, or blogs. These sources must come from
academic journals or academic books. You will need to use the University
library resources. You may also use additional articles assigned in this
course to meet the requirement. However, the selected articles must be
relevant to your paper.
Components of the Research Project
1. Research Site and Focus
1. Students will select their research site and focus early in the semester. Students
must identify where they will conduct their observations and what their focus will
be (for example- gender and race; the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality;
the intersection of gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation, etc.)
2. Students must have prior approval from the professor if they would like to change
their approved research site and focus.
2. Research Paper
1. The paper must be a minimum of 7 pages and a maximum of 8 pages, not including
the Works Cited/Bibliography page.
1. Please use Times New Roman 12 pt font, 1 inch margins, and double space.
2. Please be sure to check for spelling and grammar
3. Please include in-text citations.
4. All papers will be checked for plagiarism.
3. The paper should have the following structure:
1. Introduction – Provide a 0.5 – 1 page overview of your research project.
2. Literature Review – Provide a 2 – 3 page overview of the literature on this topic.
What does the literature say about doing gender/doing difference?
3. Methods – Provide a 0.5 – 1 page description of your methods of ethnographic
research. How did you prepare for your observations? How many hours did you
observe? How many days did you observe? What was your observation site?
4. Findings – 2.5 – 3 pages
1. Descriptive – Provide a thorough thick description of your observations. Be
specific and detailed. See examples of how to write a thick description.
2. Analytical Use the course readings (theories and other research) to help
make sense of your observations at interactional, organizational, cultural,
and structural levels of analysis. (See the article by Michael Messner as a
guide)
5. Conclusion Provide a 1 page summary of your research project and overall
findings. Provide your reflections. What did you learn or take away from this
project?
6. Works Cited Page Include a works cited page on a separate page
