The Beginning
Sharon M ilne, a member of the West Auckland Women's Centre (WAWC) and a good friend, suggested to me that the centre may be interested in working together on a project. Following this I sent Sharon a copy of the i nformation sheet about myself and what I was looking for (Appendix 3.2) and Sharon raised the idea of my working with the Centre at a collective meeting. There was a positive response and this led to a first meeting with a subgroup of the collective and myself. This first meeting took place in June 1 997 and we had an initial discussion exploring the possibility of working together.
Exploring Possibilities
Following the initial meeting, I continued to meet with Sharon and Verle, a subgroup from the centre, and we had a series of brainstorming sessions to identify an issue area that interested the WAWC. The collective operated with a number of subgroups and they discussed the idea of structuring working with me in this way at the beginning. The
subgroup was formed for working on the project. with other WAWC members stepping in as appropriate.
One of the aims of the collective was to exercise its voice at a national level on relevant issues. Verle also expressed the need for ongoing political challenging of the collective itself in order to prevent it from becoming buried as just another 'service provider'.
An idea that emerged early in our brainstorming sessions was that the collective was very keen to work with other groups in some form of flexible joint p roject. This was a model that the WAWC had used before and found attractive. Although the idea of a joint project was attractive to the WAWC, joining up with another group did not eventuate. None of the other groups I contacted expressed an interest i n the issue area chosen by the WAWC.
We had a number of very interesting initial discussions, exploring a range of possible
research topics and issues. We discussed doing a project across time, for example over two years and possibly picking up strands from the WAWC's Feeling Stretched project (The West Auckland Women's Centre, 1 994). We also discussed a range of different possible research methods and the point that the issues may change/evolve over time. As the discussions continued our ideas became more focused. The nature of the project gradually emerged and developed with each discussion. At this time I was meeting with the WAWC fortnightly. Following is a reflection from these early discussions:
Lots of different possibilities exist and it is good that we are talking about building on things done in the past. Personally I'm interested in highlighting the expectations of older women but Verle is making it clear she doesn't see it limited to that age group, Sharon agreed. Lots of discussion about how to put together a really rich picture, and then we can focus down on strands and say this is the one we want to explore, and I suspect that will be the approach we take here. Start with a picture with a lot of depth and then focusing down on the angles we want to pursue.
I really enjoyed another brainstorming session today. We didn't decide concrete steps ahead because we're not ready to do that yet but it will come easily out of this sort of brainstorming session. Verle was expressing a really keen desire to have a project she can get her teeth stuck into, a good omen for things developing. Both
Verle and Sharon are interested and on board at this stage although what shape the project takes is still open. However it is starting to take on some sort of shape and we are putting some of the key ideas in place.
Issue of Retirement Provision Emerges
In 1 997, leading up to the referendum on superannuation, there was a lot of debate around superannuation policy, particularly around the future cost of superannuation for government. As well as providing a number of services to women, the WAWC saw
engaging in political debate as an important part of its function and activities. Over time and through discussion a strong interest emerged in e ngaging in the public debate on
superannuation . There was particular concern about the limited nature of the public debate about superannuation at the time. There did not appear to be much consideration of the reality of the lives of many women in relation to their ability to save for their own retirement.
At one stage the WAWC asked to put our regular meetings on hold as they were in the midst of all their funding applications. This meant only a slight delay and we continued meeting again in August.
Literature Review on Recent Superannuation Debates
During August - September 1 997 I prepared a specific literature review for the West Auckland Women's Centre, reviewing the recent debates over retirement income and in particular the implications for women and unpaid work concerns. The literature review was used to further refine our ideas about the direction to take with the project and it was helpful in informing our discussions.
The literature review occurred in the lead-up to the referendum on the compulsory Retirement Saving Scheme (RSS) being proposed by Winston Peters. The RSS would
have made it compulsory for all people earning an income to choose a retirement savings fund and pay a proportion of their income into it until the age of 65. At the time there was extensive debate on the viability of continuing with the current system of New Zealand Superannuation (NZS), and a range of alternatives, other than RSS, were being proposed. The literature review examined the main arguments for and against RSS, and then, presuming the referendum would be against RSS, the review examined the alternative options being presented by participants in the debate. Participants proposing alternatives included The Ministry of Women's Affairs, the Todd Periodic Review Group, and Jenny Shipley. Following this, two key issues for future debates were identified. Firstly the need to focus not just on affordability, but on the distribution of goods and services available at a point in time between all members of the population. The second key issue for future debates, identified by Susan St John (1 996, p. 34), was whether the state pension would continue as a universal pension or become a targeted welfare benefit. The literature review and discussions helped shape our perspective on the issue and the questions we were interested in. I have included the literature review in its original form as Appendix 3. 1 .
Following the literature review we continued exploring the issue of retirement income and began developing questions to ask and our method. We were interested in finding ways of concretising the issue of retirement income in the actual situation of some women's lives and how their situation changes over time, and then using this as a basis for furthering public debate on the issue of retirement provision and government policy. We were considering doing interviewing or possibly using focus groups. There was also the possibility of going back to some of the people involved in the Feeling Stretched project. We were interested in covering all age groups and not limiting the interviews to one age group.
Choosing Our Method
After further discussion we decided to interview a number of women for a small qualitative study, including some from the Feeling Stretched project (this included some questions on retirement provision). We discussed how many women to interview, deciding on under twenty to keep the project manageable. The Women's Centre identified 1 5 women to interview, drawing on their networks, snowballing and some of the women involved in the Feeling Stretched project. The women were all from the predominantly suburban area of West Auckland, reflecting the geographical area covered by the WAWC. The women also reflected a wide socio-economic range, age range, family situations, and paid and unpaid work situations. The WAWC deliberately chose to interview only Pakeha women, as they felt this was more appropriate for a predominantly Pakeha organisation. The view was that aspects of the process and the membership of the group of researchers would need to change for the research process to be inclusive and appropriate for other cultural groups.
We discussed what level of participation to ask for from the women, deciding on doing interviews in the first instance and then to have some catch up phone calls over the next year. The follow up phone calls were to discuss any significant events that occurred in regard to retirement income and to be snapshots of changes in the women's situations. We a lso decided to ask the women regarding their level of participation at various points d u ring the project. We wanted the women to be able to have some input into saying how involved they wanted to be.
We decided to leave decisions regarding how to use the m aterial from the research until after it had been collated and reflected on. There was also a commitment to consultation with the participants before publication.
We discussed method and theory as well, particularly about action research and how open that needed to be. The collective was keen to build on previous research done by the WAWC, particularly the Feeling Stretched project. We also spent some time reflecting on what had worked with other WAWC projects. Another activity was checking with other sources, such as the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Department of Statistics for relevant information and p rogress on the time use study.
Preparing Pilot Interviews & Group Discussion
From October 1 997 on, the nature of our meetings began to change from general
d iscussions and reflections to more focused planning and organising of the actual research steps. Following is one of my reflections from a planning meeting.
It was quite a short meeting dealing with practicalities. We are progressing along smoothly at the moment in terms of setting up the interviews. I had changed my background information sheet and they had changed the letter and so we were checking both of those over and they seem ok. I've got to put my sheet on letterhead and send it back to them, they will then let me know as to when it suits people to have the interviews, starting with the pilots from the Women's Centre.
There may be a group session, and then the actual interviews. They will also make a phone call before the sheets/letter are sent out to people to interview. Again I'm pleased with how that is ticking along.
S haron and Verle checked with the collective regarding three m embers of the collective being interviewed for the pilot and also having a group discussion with the collective prior to beginning the interviews. Drawing on the collective for these steps reflected the collective's role as an ongoing resource for the project.
Following are the key themes we identified for the pilot interviews: 1 . Current work situation - paid, unpaid, and family situation;
2. Steps toward retirement - what steps have they taken and what steps would they like to take;
3. Retirement expectations - ideal, images (examples from people they know inside/outside family, negative or positive), when, what doing/ how they perceive their retirement;
4. Government policies - what they would like to see.
We ended up doing two pilots rather than three as two plus a group discussion was sufficient preparation for the interviews. I transcribed the pilots and these were used as the basis of a group discussion to finalise the areas and approach to be taken in the interviews. The discussion with the full collective occurred in early December 1 997.
Drawing on Principles of Feminist Research
Following the principles of feminist research was central to the research p roject. Early on we discussed how there was no one feminist methodology but that we would follow key
guidelines for feminist research and these were reflected in many of the method decisions.
Some of the guidelines for feminist research drawn on include:
• Feminist research aims to create social change (Reinharz, 1 992:240) ;
• Replaces 'value free research' with conscious partiality (Mies 1 983 : 1 22-1 23).
Intellectual commitments not to truth, objectivity and neutrality, but to theoretical positions open ly acknowledged as observer and context specific. "Rather than deny its spatio-temporal conditions and limits, feminist theory accepts and affirms them, for they are its raison d'etre."(Gross, 1 992, p. 365);
• Can use a multiplicity of research methods (Reinharz, 1 992:240); • Feminist research is guided by feminist theory (Reinharz, 1 992:240);
• Frequently includes the researcher as a person;
• Research is an interactive process without the artificial object/subject split between
researcher and researched (Duelli Klein, 1 983, p. 95);
• "Another theme emerging in feminist epistemology involves shifting the focus from individual knowers to the perspectives of groups or communities. This shift in focus should perhaps represent a reminder rather than a new idea, since the 'experience' so valued in early feminist consciousness raising was in fact a collective
construction."(DeVault, 1 996, p. 42)
Our research sought to value women as a legitimate target of study and explore research questions that were relevant to women's lives. We wanted to make visible the ordinary context and reality of their lives and how this was shaping their actual retirement provision, their hopes for retirement and their views on government policy for retirement.
Values
It is important that what and whose values underpinning any research p roject are explicit as they shape the whole orientation of a project and define what is ideal and what is perceived as good versus bad. In this research project values were d rawn from the WAWC, the women interviewed and myself. Everyone who had input into the project played a role in articulating values the project should reflect. The starting pOint from the WAWC and myself was recogn ising the value of unpaid work and its implications for saving for retirement, and valuing the experience and views of the women interviewed. The women interviewed expressed a range of values but a common value they all shared was the importance of a pension/benefit to prevent poverty and to enable belonging and participation.
Other values that shaped the orientation of the project were:
• An explicit questioning of shifts in the balance of individual, family and government provision for retirement;
• A view that the issue of retirement provision should involve more than an exclusive focus on affordability;
• Examining the issue of pension versus benefit - deliberately d rawing out the opinions of the women interviewed.
Politics
Linda Smith identifies five central questions focusing around power, which all research should address. She locates the questions in a cross-cultural context, however they are equally valid in other contexts. The questions are:
1 . Who has helped define the research problem?
2. For whom is this study worthy and relevant? Who says so?
3. Which cultural group will be the one to gain new knowledge 'from this study? 4. To whom is the research accountable?
5. Who will gain most from this study? (Smith, 1 986, p. 9)
In relation to this project the research problem was defined by the WAWC. The study was relevant to the women interviewed and to the WAWC in their role of advocating for better government policies for women. I say the study was relevant to the women interviewed because they all chose to participate in it in part due to having an interest in improving and reflecting on their own retirement provision. The study was focused on the experience of West Auckland pakeha women and the WAWC will gain new knowledge from the stu_dy, however the findings of the project will be disseminated, both back into the local community and at a national level. The research was accountable to the full WAWC collective and to the women interviewed, as the process included seeking consultation with everyone before
publication. The people most likely to gain most from this study were the WAWC in terms of being able to further their advocating role and myself as it forms part of my doctorate.
During the project I was conscious of a balancing act between using a process that was in the interests of the women interviewed while not demanding too much from them. The process of specifically asking the women regarding their level of involvement, at points along the project, was important, as it gave them the control to become more or less involved in the project as it progressed.
Another power issue was how to represent the diverging opinions expressed by the women, to ensure everyone's opinion was respected and heard. In d rafting up the findings I was very conscious of the power I had to include or exclude specific voices and ideas. I needed to be very careful not to abuse the power I had and to be very conscious of it. Group reflections were very important in drawing out the issues involved and appropriate responses.
I was the interviewer for all the interviews, a Pakeha women and younger than most of the women interviewed. All the interviews were in English and none of the women interviewed spoke English as a second language. The interviews were an hour in length and involved me asking a number of open ended questions. Whenever I was asked q uestions I responded as openly as possible, answering to the best of my knowledge. The interviews were all friendly and I did the best I could to minimise any hierarchical relationship.
Ethics
Informed consent was sought from all the women prior to being interviewed. They were given an information sheet explaining the project (Appendix 3.3), introducing me and my role, and a consent form to sign (Appendix 3.4). The consent form also gave them options regarding what they would like to happen to the interview tape. The participants also had the right to decline at any stage.
We guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity for all the women interviewed. Where
necessary some minor details were changed in the quotes to ensure this. We respected an obligation to maintain honesty between the researchers (the WAWC and myself) and the women interviewed. The women were all phoned prior to being sent their transcripts. The information gained from the interviews was used only as agreed on the original consent