Taking Feminism Seriously in Political Science

Abstract

Abstract This chapter brings together the two different disciplinary lenses of political science and philosophy to map out feminist political science and its potential for contributing to nonfeminist political science. It begins with basic epistemological foundations from political science and philosophy perspectives and then shows how feminist political science has put into action these epistemological pillars in research through an examination of different taxonomies of feminist approaches in political science that reflect the increasing epistemological diversity of the field. The final section takes a deeper dive into critical feminist theory that develops a necessary critique of the inherent power biases of many feminist approaches. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the broader lessons learned from applying such a critical and ontologically diverse perspective for both feminist and nonfeminist political science and suggests future steps for taking more seriously feminist approaches in political science.