Researching childcare in a multi‐ethnic society

This article explores the research process for two studies aimed at revealing white and ethnic minority mothers’ perspectives on child health care in the UK during the 1980s. An important goal within the studies was that the methodology employed should be appropriate to the topic, and hence sensitive to the interviewees’ responses. The research process was thus doubly at odds with dominant ‘male‐stream’, health research practice, which assumes women's and children's health to be contingent upon men's socio‐economic position and primarily employs quantitative data research methods. Issues arising include constraints imposed by funding and academic bureaucracy; problems of securing an adequate sample; of justifying to interviewees the imposition upon their time; and the difficulties of incorporating into the research process the perspectives of socially disadvantaged people.