ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores tourism ethnography intricacies by drawing on observations, experiences, feelings and fieldnotes collected whilst completing ethnographic fieldwork on ‘The relationship between female tourism handicraft entrepreneurship and gender roles and relations in Greece’. In Greece, despite a General Secretariat of Gender Equality being established in the 1980s, within academia feminism as a theory had rather negative connotations, with no funding being given for university gender and equality projects until 2000 when the European Union started supporting research proposals with a feminist focus. The first ethnographic moment that illustrates how gender roles influence gaining access to potential participants is set in Rethymno, Crete. Another instance when gaining access to ethnographic participants was influenced by gender roles took place in Metsovo, Epirus. Gender roles are very context-specific, and various ethnographic instances illustrated how femininity is connected to ‘being constantly busy’ in the Greek context.
