How can we engender ethnography with a feminist imagination?: A rejoinder to Judith Stacey

Abstract

Synopsis In this article, I examine the dilemmas that Stacey (1988) outlines in questioning “Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?” as a point of departure for considering the possibilities for feminist ethnography. I consider Stacey's assessment of the contradictory relation between ethnography and feminism and submit that the ethnographic paradoxes that she identifies need not be seen as inimical to feminism but can be considered as potential sites for engendering ethnography with feminist sensibilities. I respond to Stacey's call for increased dialogue between feminism and “new” ethnography to explore how we might expand our view of the ethnographic process and product to enable greater feminist possibilities. I suggest that we include the narrative and interpretive practices of writers and readers as central constituents of ethnographic processes and products. In this way, we can enhance the possibilities for feminist ethnography by exercising what I term a “feminist imagination” through our ethnographic research, writing, and reading practices.