The Myth of the Male Ethnographer and the Woman's World

It is here argued that the traditionally accepted view regarding the inaccessibility of the woman's world to male ethnographers is largely a rationalization that justifies not collecting information about women, glosses over the fact that much such information is readily attainable, makes the questionable assumption that this information will be so distorted as to be useless, and erroneously implies that there are no comparable problems for male ethnographers working with the man's world.