Introduction To Feminist Research

This document introduces feminist research by outlining its key defining principles and methodological approaches. It discusses how feminist research aims to address issues like empowering women and enacting social change. The document also notes some challenges in achieving the ideal goals of feminist research due to outside influences.

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Introduction To Feminist Research

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Nur Hayani

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Introduction to Feminist Research

All research begins with a problem or a question. Deciding on what method to

use to find the solution or answer, and then gathering, organizing, and
analysing data, are the next steps, followed by writing and publishing the
research report.

What makes research feminist? A classic answer is that it is research done

by, for, and about women. Another is that "feminist researchers produce
feminist research" (Robbins, 1996, p. 170). There is no single definition of
"feminist research" (or "feminism," for that matter), but many authors point to
certain key elements as defining features. These features help distinguish
feminist research from either traditional social sciences research, research
that studies women, or research that attends to gender but without an agenda
for change. What makes feminist research uniquely feminist are the kinds of
questions, methodologies, knowledge, and purpose brought to the research
process.

In their recent book on feminist methodologies, Mich�le Ollivier and Manon

Tremblay (2000) identify three defining principles of feminist research. First,
feminist research is characterized by its double dimension. As opposed to
traditional research, its objectives include both the construction of new
knowledge and the production of social change. Historically, feminist research
has been informed by women's struggles against the multiple forms of their
oppression. Second, feminist research is grounded in feminist values and
beliefs. It seeks to include feminism within the process, to focus on the
meanings women give to their world, while recognizing that research must
often be conducted within institutions that are still patriarchal. Feminist
principles inform all stages of the research, from choice of topic to
presentation of data, acting as the framework guiding the decisions being
made by the people involved in the research. Third, feminist research is
characterized by its diversity. It is interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, it
uses different methodologies, and it is constantly being redefined by the
concerns of women coming from very different perspectives. Feminist
research thus requires that such issues as antiracism and diversity,
democratic decision making, and the empowerment of women--including
traditionally marginalised women--are addressed.
Feminists may not agree how precisely to shape or define feminist research,
but there is a high degree of concurrence over the epistemological grounding
of the research process. Judith Cook and Mary Margaret Fonow (1986)
identify five basic epistemological principles in feminist methodology. These
include the taking of women and gender as the focus of analysis; the
importance of consciousness raising; the rejection of subject and object (this
means valuing the knowledge held by the participant as being expert
knowledge and acknowledging how research valued as "objective" always
reflects a specific social and historical standpoint; a concern with ethics
(throughout the research process and in the use of research results); and an
intention to empower women and change power relations and inequality.

Methodologically, feminist research differs from traditional research. It actively

seeks to remove the power imbalance between research and subject; it is
politically motivated in that it seeks to change social inequality; and it begins
with the standpoints and experiences of women. A wide range of methods,
both qualitative and quantitative, are available to feminist researchers. Instead
of focussing on which type of research is better, it makes more sense to allow
the context and purpose of the research to guide the choice of research tools
and techniques. There is no one method or strategy for feminist research. The
particular situation or context should guide the methodological choices,
instead of having a trust in the method as appropriate for every context and
situation (Greaves et al., 1995, p. 334).

While feminist researchers can strive for the ideal feminist research process,
there often exists a large gap between the reality and ideal goals of doing
feminist research. While the desire may be to promote equality in the research
process through the validation of women's experiences and to enact social
change and transformation, many barriers confront feminist researchers from
achieving these aims. Doing research involves a long series of choices and
decisions. While feminist beliefs and concerns will help guide and direct the
decision making process, outside forces also play a key role. Diana Ralph
constructed a power pyramid that illustrates how power informs the decision
making process; where the feminist researcher is on the bottom of the
structure, she has more difficulty in controlling the choices being made (Ralph,
1988, p. 140). The culture or society in which one conducts research, the
external funding agencies, the organizations or individuals who have an
investment in the outcome of the research process, publishers, and even the
research team all significantly impact on the decisions being made. Marianne
Weston sees all research as existing on a fluid scale between traditional
research and ideal feminist research. She argues that one can evaluate to
what degree a research project is feminist by looking at the choices being
made by the researcher.

Feminist research cannot claim to speak for all women, but can provide new
knowledge grounded in the realities of women's experiences and actively
enact structural changes in the social world.

Written by Jennifer Brayton, Mich�le Ollivier, and Wendy Robbins.

Bibliography

Cook, J. and Fonow, M. M. (1986). "Knowledge and Women's Interests:

Issues of Epistemology and Methodology" in Feminist Sociological
Research". Sociological Inquiry, 56 (4): 2-29.

Greaves, L., Wylie, A., and the Staff of the Battered Women's Advocacy
Centre: C. Champagne, L. Karch, R. Lapp, J. Lee & B. Osthoff (1995).
"Women and Violence: Feminist Practice and Quantitative Method". In
Changing Methods: Feminists Transforming Practice, edited by Sandra Burt
and Lorraine Code, 301-326. Ontario: Broadview Press.

Ollivier, Mich�le and Manon Tremblay (2000). Questionnements f�ministes

et m�thodologie de la recherche. Montr�al et Paris: L'Harmattan.

Ralph, D. (1988). "Researching from the Bottom: Lesson of Participatory

Research for Feminists". In From the Margins to the Centre: Selected Essays
in Women's Studies Research, edited by Dawn Currie, 134-141.
Saskatchewan: The Women's Studies Research Unit, University of
Saskatchewan.

Robbins, Wendy. "Dollars and Sense, or, Reflections and Projections of a

Feminist Researcher," in Memories and Visions: Celebrating 20 Years of
Feminist Research with CRIAW/ICREF, 1976-1996. Ed. Linda Clippingdale.
Ottawa: CRIAW/ICREF, 1996.170-77.

Weston, M. (1988). "Can Academic Research Be Truly Feminist?". In From

the Margins to the Centre: Selected Essays in Women's Studies Research,
edited by Dawn Currie, 142-150. Saskatchewan: The Women's Studies
Research Unit, University of Saskatchewan.