Feminist Research with Non-Feminist and Anti-Feminist Women: Meeting the Challenge (original) (raw)

The Compromised Researcher : Issues in Feminist Research Methodologies

Sociologisk Forskning, 2012

This article centres on issues of vulnerability and being compromised in feminist research where the focus has frequently been on researching the same. Compromise, here used in its pejorative sense, may for instance occur in terms of one's research topic, the methods one utilizes, or the participants chosen for a study. Drawing on a range of examples including the methodological work of Ann Oakley (1981, 2000) as well as three articles on researching men that appeared in the journal Signs in 2005, I argue that feminist researchers, possibly because they work in an identity-based discipline, may be diversely vulnerable when researching the same and/or researching the different, and can be compromised both by how they are treated by those whom they encounter in their research and by their own behaviour in that context. I suggest that these concerns are under-articulated in feminist research and conclude with a series of questions that need to be raised .

Conceptual Issues in Feminist/Gendered Research

2015

The paper examines issues within feminist or gender research; thus it examines feminist research methods; the difference that exists between general research methods and feminist research and the challenge (s) of methodology in feminist research.

Objectivity and truth: Problems in doing feminist research

Women's Studies International Forum, 1983

Synopsis-This paper examines principles of feminist research and discusses the authors' attempts to use these principles in a systematic way in their own research. Three principles of feminist research are identified: research should contribute to women's liberation through producing knowledge that can be used by women themselves; should use methods of gaining knowledge that are not oppressive; should continually develop a feminist critical perspective that questions dominant intellectual traditions and can reflect on its own development. Consciously applying these principles in a research study of the relation between changes in consciousness and the changes in the structural situation of individuals raised several methodological issues and dilemmas. These include the impossibility of creating a research process that completely erases the contradictions in the relationship between the researcher and the researched; the difficulties in analysing change as a process; the tension between the necessity of organizing the data and producing an analysis which reveals the totality of women's lives; and problems of validity, particularly those raised when the research process becomes part of the process of change.

FEMINIST METHODOLOGIES AND EPISTEMOLOGY (2006)

O ver the past 10 years of teaching courses on research methods and feminist approaches to methodologies and epistemologies, a recurring question from our students concerns the distinctiveness of feminist approaches to methods, methodologies, and epistemologies. This key question is posed in different ways: Is there a specifically feminist method? Are there feminist methodologies and epistemologies, or simply feminist approaches to these? Given diversity and debates in feminist theory, how can there be a consensus on what constitutes "feminist" methodologies and epistemologies?

Feminist research, feminist consciousness and experiences of sexism

Women's Studies International Quarterly, 1979

Synopsis--Models of the 'research process' frequently represent this as involving a linear movement from theory to research ('positivist') or from research to theory ('naturalist'), although the actual experience of research may not fit into either. Our own research experience suggests that, for feminist researchers, there may be a more complex interaction between the 'research phenomenon', 'feminist theory' and 'feminist consciousness', as well as more directly personal influences and effects.

‘Claims and Disclaimers: Knowledge, Reflexivity and Representation in Feminist Research’

Sociological Research Online, 2002

In this article I consider issues of knowledge, reflexivity and representation in feminist research. Using my feminist sociological doctoral research as an example I add to debate by feminist researchers and others concerned with epistemological authority. After setting the research scene and outlining what I feel I did and did not achieve both substantively and epistemologically I consider some of the contradictions and tensions in feminist research through a consideration of reflexivity and representation. Throughout I consider issues of auto/biography.

Feminist Research Methodology: challenges to the main (male) stream research

Feminism and feminist movement in the 70's aimed at ending the subordination and suffering of women. Its endeavor was to emancipate women and bring gender equality in various fields including that of theory and research. The feminist critique of research in general and of social science research in particular has emerged as a legitimate, relevant and popular research model against the male bias prevalent in the existing theory and research. With the rise of the feminist movement many feminist scholars argued that traditional social sciences reflected a deep rooted male centric, sexist and patriarchal representation of society in theory and knowledge. This approach was condemned for neglecting or ignoring the standpoint of women, her values and experiences in the society. Hence with the advent of critical theoretical approach* and strong feminist movements, a model was introduced which aimed to "serve the interests of