ABSTRACT
The chapter starts with discussing how otherness in the research relation is context-dependent and gender becomes of specific relevance in gender-typed settings, determining flexible and often contradictory power relations. In male-dominated military settings, the outsiderness of female researchers is twofold, deriving from them being both civilian and women. The chapter then explores these issues through a retrospective examination of the author's concrete research experiences and stories, using research notes, anecdotes and biographical memories. Italy, in fact, was NATO's last member to allow women's participation in the Armed Forces, as the law on female military service was approved only in 2000. Gender and professional roles play a major part in structuring the research process, developments in the fieldwork and research results. Self-reflection on doing research as gendered actors has a great potential in terms of rethinking social research as a gendered construction too, which can deeply shape the production of knowledge.
