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of conversation is the use of photographs as a memory tool. If you can, ask your interviewee to bring photographs from his/her collection to your meeting, then go over them with the oral author and ask what is happening in each photograph. You would be surprised how much information such an approach will yield. One of the most difficult things for an interviewer to learn is the value of moments of silence during an interview. Very often, when an oral author lapses into a moment of silence, one tends to get a little nervous and start asking questions to "fill up” the silence. This is wrong. It doesn’t take into account the fact that a person needs a moment of quiet reflection in order to let long-gone experiences and memories surface once more. You will find that some of the best anecdotes you get from your oral author will come after this kind of quiet reflection. It’s important not to tire your oral author or yourself. An interview should last about an hour, but not much more, especially when you are interviewing an older person. It is better to arrange for a second follow-up interview, than to try to conduct an extra-long one in one sitting. In a second inter view, you have a chance to clarify points which came up in the first interview, and to check out inconsistencies which may have become apparent only when you listened to the tape of the interview at home. Which brings us to the topic of the tape itself. In addition to the importance of good interviewing techniques, there is also the importance of a good quality sound recording of the interview, not to mention the avoidance of such mistakes as forgetting to bring and extra set of batteries for your cassette recorder, or an adapter. When conducting the interview, be sure you are in a quiet area with no background noises such as screeching brakes, squeaking doors or screaming children, all of which would immediately register on your tape. Another sound to avoid recording on the tape is the sound of your own lovely voice • In 1970 a 5-person team of researchers surveyed 79 clinically trained psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, both male and female. The interviews revealed that a kind of double standard of mental health was practiced by the mental health professionals. Our concept of emotional stability and maturity as perceived even by specialists in the field has been distorted by the prevailing attitudes about femininity and masculinity. The clinicians had two different concepts of mental health — one for men and one for women; moreover, these concepts conformed nicely to sex-role stereotypes in our society. According to the respondents, a woman is to be regarded as healthier and more mature if she is: more submissive, less independent, less adventurous, more easily influenced, less aggressive, less competitive, more excitable in minor crisis, more susceptible to hurt feelings, more emotional, more narcissistic, less objective and more antagonistic toward math and science. This very same description was used by the very same clinicians when they described an unhealthy, immature man. Futhermore, the description fit an unhealthy, immature adult when gender remained unspecified. Need one say more? Each one of these studies — and one can muster thousands more as evidence — document that: 1) women are undervalued in our society simply because they are women: 2) societal attitudes impact negatively on female self- respect, confidence motivation. Girls learn to perform down to expectations; they have good reason to avoid success. On the saying such things as ”ls that so!” or ”Hm" or ”Uh huh” or "How interesting.” Remember, the tape is merciless in recording your every sound, so learn to respond to your oral author's remarks with silent facial expressions such as a smile, or a raised eyebrow or a nod. There is no question that your interviewee does need feedback. Just make sure yours is of the silent variety. (Obviously, this applies only to incidental remarks, not to your major questions). At the beginning of the tape, be sure to record a brief statement incorporating the most pertinent information on the interview to follow. It can sound something like this: "The following is an interview with Mrs. A conducted by В in C on D date.” Write in this same information on your cassette tape or on your reel, whichever you are using. This is important in keeping track of the materials you are collecting. As a final note, some interviewers find it useful to keep the tape recorder out of sight when the interview is taking place. They feel it enables their interviewees to speak more easily into the microphone if they don’t have to see tapes spinning record ing every word for posterity.Obviously, this depends on each individual. It also depends on whether your tape recorder has an external mike or a built-in mike. As your oral author speaks and mentions names and places, write these down in a notebook. This list can be checked later by the oral author for accuracy and will help you when you compile an index to the transcription of the tape, a subject which will be covered in the 4th and final in this series of articles on oral history. In the meanwhile, if you follow some of the above- mentioned guidelines for a good oral history interview, incorpo rate some of your own knowledge of interviewing techniques and adhere to basic principles of common sense and good judgement, you should have a fine interview on your hands and be ready for the next step. one hand, they know that no matter how well they do, a large portion of people — including, perhaps, even they themselves — will not accept women as equals. On the other hand, they are aware of the fact that whatever success they do have serves to cast a shadow on their status as a ’’real woman.” All in all, a competent, motivated woman is caught in a double-bind, no- win predicament. She must worry not only about failure, but also about success. If she fails in her achievement needs, she must live with the knowledge that she is not living up to l.er potential. If she succeeds, she must live with the knowledge that she is not living up to society’s conception of a feminine woman. Inherent within the values of our culture is a largely unconscious ideology about the nature of the female sex. This ideology generates assumptions — perhaps not consciously articulated, but subconsciously accepted — about a woman’s "natural” talents or lack of them. This ideology rationalizes, justifies and sets into operation the forces of sex-role stereo typing, conditioning and socialization. It is this ideology which constricts the emerging self-image and aspirations of a female child from the very first months of her life. Reasoning and problem solving are fine, society teaches females, so long as these activities are related to the proper domain of women. Don’t rise too far, we tell our female children, or you won’t find a husband; and when we talk, our НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ, ЛЮТИЙ 1978 23
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