Procesiones y novenas

Similar to the first stage, in Stage 2 convenience and snowball sampling Blaikie (2000) were used to source participants. Crowther and Lancaster (2008) explain that planning and conducting interviews should include six steps. These steps are described and discussed as follows: 1. designing guiding questions; 2. identifying and approaching interviewees; 3. seeking permission; 4. arranging interviews; 5. conducting interviews; and 6. recording interviews.

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1. Designing guiding questions

The purpose of a rich interview is to have a set of good questions to ask interviewees. This will contribute to the importance and adequacy of research credibility (Rubin & Rubin 2012). An interview guide was used in this thesis to help the researcher effectively conduct semi- structured interviews to gather all important concepts and views of the participants using the guiding questions (Flick 2009). The researcher designed a list of interview questions based on relevant literature and outcomes from the exploratory study. The interview guide enabled the researcher to sustain the standardisation and comparability of the research and to increase the reliability of the thesis (Yin 2009).

2. Identifying and approaching interviewees

Convenience and snowball sampling (Blaikie 2000) were used to identify and approach interview respondents. Friends and colleagues of the researcher were asked if they would like to participate. Criteria were developed to select women so that the qualitative sample would be both purposeful and homogenous. A decision was agreed between supervisors and the researcher that the sample should be sourced from within the Australian financial services industry and outside this industry within a local capital city. The reason for interviewing women from within financial services was to investigate if their choice of career offered advantages and insights about financial matters that may not be readily available to those who worked in other areas. When the cohort was examined from this viewpoint, eight participants were identified from within the industry and eighteen outside, giving a total of twenty-six. It was considered appropriate to have a sample of twelve women from within and twelve women

145 outside the financial services industry to provide balance and perspective to the thesis. It appeared that in most cases, a woman’s area of employment did not have a markedly significant influence on her financial capability. Other factors such as confidence, a willingness to learn, and financial security and freedom were common to all women. However, women working in finance were more aware of the benefits and complexities of superannuation and had a deeper understanding of investment options, aside from property acquisitions. This meant that they were more fully informed about industry financial management but appeared to not impact their personal sense of well-being as the basics of earning, saving, and investing were practised by all women. It is these foundational behaviours that appear to foster financial capability. This will be examined further in the Analysis chapters 5, 6, and 7 and Discussion chapters 8, 9, and 10. A full comparison is beyond the scope of this study.

The final sample totalled twenty-six women from Australian eastern seaboard states plus one territory. Thirteen women were engaged in the financial services and thirteen were from other areas. The following table summarises participants’ age group, geographical location, and whether employed within the financial services industry or outside this industry. All women invited willingly agreed to participate in this research.

146 Table 4.2: Sample Demographics by Location

Age group

Location Within Financial Services

No. Location Outside Financial Services No. 30s Melbourne, Vic Sydney, NSW 1 2 Melbourne, Vic Canberra, ACT 1 1 40s Melbourne, Vic Sydney, NSW Brisbane, Qld 3 1 3 Melbourne, Vic 9 50s Melbourne, Vic Sydney, NSW Brisbane, Qld 1 1 1 Melbourne, Vic 2 Total = 26 13 13 Source: Author

The age range spanned approximately thirty years from early 30s to late 50s. While most participants were Australian with Australian born parents (16), eleven women, had different cultural backgrounds. For example, the parents of seven women were from Greece, Bosnia, Poland, Germany, and The Netherlands (mother)/the UK (father); two women were from New Zealand; one was from the USA; and one was from Malaysia. The cultural backgrounds of the interviewees was an unexpected finding. However, it was not extensively researched due to the thesis being contextualised in socialisation theory and financial capability. Migration is part of contemporary society as people seek, among other things, security freedom, and the ability to create better lives for themselves and their families (Papastergiadis 2013). Just as Australia offered these personal goals to those who immigrated to this country, their contribution to national prosperity and cultural richness provided by their diverse backgrounds is welcomed and valued.

147 Regarding education, twenty-four women were tertiary qualified with two having appropriate industry credentials. As well, most were engaged in full-time employment, either as an employee or employer, with one woman working full-time as a partner in small business and two others running part-time businesses from home.

3. Seeking permission

The researcher contacted friends and colleagues inviting them to participate in this research. Once verbal agreement was given, an email was sent with three documents attached. These were a formal invitation letter explaining the research background, the Plain Language Statement, a Consent Form authorising the disclosure of personal information, and the interview guide. For interviewees who were referred, an email was sent to prospective participants inviting them to participate in this research. Once they agreed to an interview, they were emailed the same three documents as described above. These documents were sent to all interviewees prior to meeting to ensure they understood what the research subject matter was and that they wished to proceed. Most returned the signed Consent Form prior to the interview. For those who had not done so, this Form was signed at the time of the interview with a copy emailed to them within one day of meeting.

4. Arranging interviews

Before contacting participants, time, location, and travel arrangements especially to conduct interstate interviews had to be considered.

148 All interviews were conducted personally face-to-face on an individual basis. The reason for undertaking individual interviews is that they provide an undiluted focus on the individual from a personal perspective for an in-depth understanding of their context about the research topic in a detailed manner (Ritchie & Lewis 2003). Detailed understanding and clarification is time intensive. Based on the pre-test event, it was expected that each interview would take from 45 to 60 minutes. For example, the duration of interviews varied with the shortest taking thirty-one minutes with an interviewee from outside financial services and the longest was just over two hours with a participant from within the financial services industry. Most interviews took between forty and sixty-five minutes and took place in various locations. Possible venues were at the participant’s home, their workplace, or the researcher’s residence. The reason for conducting some interviews at the researcher’s residence was that following a pre-test meeting in a café, it was not particularly successful due to noise and others’ movements. It was decided that interviews were more effective when conducted in a quiet location, so that the researcher and participant could focus on the task at hand. Eleven interviews took place at the participant’s home, ten were at their workplace, and five were conducted at the researcher’s residence. The reason for choosing this venue was because it was quiet and convenient due to a central city location for the participants and researcher. These women were not mothers of the adolescent women who participated in Stage 1 of data generation activities.

Participant data were detailed on a spread sheet from the first contact to interview completion. The interview process took place from mid-February 2013 to June 2013. Over this period,

149 twenty-six face-to-face interviews were recorded on a digital voice recorder and later transcribed. Memos made immediately after each interview reported first impressions of the interaction, as well facial and physical expressions observed during the interview.

5. Conducting interviews

Interviewer skills are important for good reliable research data to be generated by using the semi-structured interview method. The researcher employed two strategies to prepare for conducting the interviews. First, she undertook an extensive review of the existing literature on women and financial capability and possible factors that may influence this state. Second, she was helped to identify and be aware of errors or bias that might occur with the personal interview technique. As well, before conducting interviews for the main study, a pre-test interview was used with women from outside financial services to help contextualise initial ideas uncovered in this thesis.

Seven guiding questions were designed to generate data (Lusardi 2008; Sherraden 2010). A copy of the Interview Guide is included in Appendix C. To link with the initial pilot thesis with adolescent women, the first question asked the interviewee to recall any of their experiences with money when they were fourteen to sixteen years old. The next four questions elicited data from that time to the present regarding their relationship with money, important events over time, factors that influenced their relationship with money, and how they viewed the role money would play in their future. The concluding set of questions asked the participant to define what financial capability meant to them and then to self-assess their

150 financial capability. Finally, if there was anything they would like to add, the interviewee was invited to do so. As demographic information was disclosed by the interviewee, this was noted during the conversation. This information included age, position in family, marital status, dependents (if any), location, professional role, and home ownership status.

The researcher asked all interviewees the same questions, but not always in the same order as the guiding questions were supplemented by either planned or unplanned probing questions (Richards & Morse 2007). Consequently, any discussion that was beyond the interview guide was investigated to generate in-depth information and identify any emerging themes.

While the focus of financial literacy is on knowledge and education, financial capability is the ability to act with knowledge and skills, coupled with access to quality financial products and services in a framework provided by government policies, laws, regulations, and practices. The subtle difference in these definitions indicates that financial capability embraces a more holistic approach than being literate as opportunity, freedom and willingness to act are for personal well-being. This is why the focus is on capability and women’s relationship with money. In the thesis, information was gathered under these headings with questions to elicit depth and richness in women’s experiences with personal finances so as to clearly retain financial capability as the key concept under investigation.

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6. Recording interviews

All interviews were digitally recorded so that conversations could be stored electronically, recalled for transcribing, and archived. Using this device allowed greater flexibility in conducting interview sessions as the researcher could concentrate on the women’s responses without being distracted. As a result, the researcher could maintain the interview focus and pose probing questions to obtain in-depth insights and rich dialogue with the interviewees. Furthermore, the researcher’s concentration was not disturbed during the interview process by the need to take notes and the risk of missing important data from participants. Following each interview, the recording files were transferred to a laptop so that the researcher could listen and transcribe the interviews simultaneously. The recording files were also saved to an external hard disk for back-up purposes.