Feminist Methods Research Articles

New Formats for Revisits

In the early 1990s, Alexandra Juhasz researched feminist media history. She held five meetings around the United States that included more than one hundred diverse media feminists. The meetings were documented (on VHS!) and later transcribed and logged. The tapes record how she was generously given an outsize list of names, films, influences, and themes, and a mind-expanding list of possible strategies for feminist media history making. The research led to a book and a documentary, and the tapes were stored in a box in an archive. One, from New York in 1994, is now here, digitized, at the above URL.Years later, Juhasz was working on another related collaborative project, a working group at the CUNY Graduate Center sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, VHS Archives (https://www.centerforthehumanities.org/public-engagement/working-groups/vhs-archives), where activists, scholars, archivists, and others have been thinking about how to preserve, share, teach from, and activate analog archives. The lightweight tool that sits on top of this VHS recording is one of the exciting results of their work. This open-source tool, developed with the group by Partner and Partners, is a manifestation of ideas (still in development) about how to work carefully with the video of small, dedicated, often vulnerable political communities. Juhasz put her tape into the tool and annotated it (with others) as an offering to the introduction. It is not just footage useful for further research, but also an example of feminist methods in new formats, where the ambivalence, love, need, and sometimes boringness of intergenerational transfer—a subject within the research meeting itself—could be marked and then opened up for further participation by others.

Using feminist ‘reflexive practice’ to explore stress and well-being of local researchers in South Sudan

ABSTRACTThis article discusses using feminist methods of reflexive practice to support and learn about the well-being of researchers working on gender-based violence research in South Sudan. In particular, we focus on the experiences of South Sudanese researchers undertaking this research in their own country. We share key findings and offer personal reflections on and suggestions for improving fieldwork. As feminists ourselves we placed a high value on sharing personal reflections on emotional challenges that the research team faced. However, our South Sudanese colleagues did not find these approaches very useful, preferring to discuss technical challenges, and placed emphasis on the importance of professionalism. This experience suggests the need for more culturally diverse feminist research tools, and for better recognition of the crucial role played by national researchers in international research projects. We end with recommendations.

The Sexual Negotiation Space of Women in the Marital rape in Jember

This study focuses on sexual negotiations carried out by women because of the marital rape that their husbands did. Marital rape itself is a form of violence or forced sexual activity of a husband to his wife. Where, in this case, there are women's rights violated. It is based on the dichotomous ideal role of women and men in marriage, which is a manifestation of gender status that has implications for the division and subordination of sexuality to women. The researcher used the theory of feminist existentialism Simone de Beauvoir, to show the position of women as a socio-culture and sexually subordinated people and women's ability to demonstrate their existence through sexual negotiations in marriage. This study used qualitative feminist methods by using in-depth interviews with seven women who experienced problems with marital rape in their marriage. The results of this study are that sexual negotiation is created because of sexual injustice in the form of marital rape experienced by women in their marriages, where the sexual negotiation room is used by women to bargain with their husbands or even themselves. This process of negotiation shows that women can also fight or show their existence in marriage. It means that women do not have to sacrifice their marriage to be able to show their existence. Women can still be the subjects while borrowing the same structure as patriarchy.
 Keywords: marital rape, women, sexual negotiations.
 Referensi:
 Arivia, Gandis. 2013. Subyek yang Dikekang. Jakarta: Komunitas Salihara-Hivos.
 Bauvoir, Simone De. 2003. SECOND SEX: Kehidupan Perempuan. Pustaka Promethea
 Fakih, Mansour. 2012. Analisis Gender dan Tranformasi Sosial. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar
 Foucault, Michel. 1997. Sejarah Seksualitas: Seks Dan Kekuasaan. Jakarta: Pustaka Utama
 Gamble, Sarah. 2010. Pengantar Memahami Feminisme dan Postfeminisme. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.
 Painter, Kate. 1991. Wife Rape in the United Kingdom. A paper presented at the American Society of Criminology. Diakses pada 15 januari 2019 melalui http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/people/academic_research/kate_painter/wiferape.pdf; on.
 Marlina, Milda. 2007. Marital rape: Kekerasan Seksual Pada Istri. Yogyakarta : Pustaka pesantren.
 Tong, Rosemarie Putnam. 2010. Feminis Thought: Pengantar Paling Kompeherensif Kepada Arus Utama Pemikiran Feminis. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.
 Hadiwijono, Harun. 2010. Sari Sejarah Filsafat Barat 2. Yogyakarta: Kanisius.
 Woods, Laurie. "Books Review: Rape In Marriage.”. 1983. Laws & Inequality: A Journal Of Theory And Practice (University Of Minnesota Libraries Publishing)

The construction of women’s social spaces through physical exercise in urban China

By applying feminist geographical theories and qualitative research methods, this article reveals Chinese women’s exercise experiences in urban spaces and discusses how women, through physical activity in neighbourhoods, public places and commercial facilities, constructed social spaces of their own. The findings show that exercise spaces are potentially sites for women’s health, well-being, social networking and collective empowerment. They challenge traditional gendered urban spaces by deconstructing the dual structure of ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres, inducing women to gradually shift from the ‘edge’ to the ‘centre’. Though the spatial differences in women’s physical activities reflect the diversity and dynamics of women’s spatialities, they also imply the continuous social powers on women in exercise fields, where gendered disparities and class stratification may be sustained.

Doing research and ‘doing gender’ in Ethiopia’s agricultural research system

This article presents data from an experimental gender audit that was completed of the national agricultural research system in Ethiopia. The results show how agriculture researchers understand and practice gender in Ethiopia and what the research outputs say about Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR)'s ability to incorporate gender across the research process. The article applies gender mainstreaming theory and feminist research methods and methodologies to frame the analysis. This body of scholarship highlights crucial questions that go beyond the counting of male and female participants in research surveys and the recruitment of female informants, a problem at EIAR. The article argues that focusing on gender mainstreaming ignores the power relations that currently maintain the status quo and prevent a substantial approach to ‘doing gender’ from evolving. In order to improve gender equality in Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, EIAR needs to expand the methodologies currently used and include and raise awareness for feminist methods. This study adds to the emerging literature on Ethiopian women studies, gender mainstreaming, institutional reform, and gender research methods.

Triangulation of Feminist Methods: Uncovering Discrimination Against Female Graduate Teaching Assistants a Case Study

Discrimination against women and the devaluation of their work occurs within our society. Academe is not immune to sexist ideologies toward female faculty, students and graduate instructors. A previously conducted study questioned whether students within female graduate instructors’ classrooms express this form of discrimination via hostile, dominant, disrespectful behavior, and devaluation. This study utilizes a triangulation of methods, both quantitative and qualitative. Unobtrusive observations, surveys, and consciousness-raising debriefings were used in order to examine the issue of sexism in academe and grant voice and merit to the experiences of female graduate teaching instructors. This study examines the methods utilized and questions whether such collection of data would be pertinent during the Me Too Movement Era.

Perempuan Pakpak dalam Realitas Adat (Studi kasus di desa Pegagan Julu VIII)

This paper is derived from case studies conducted on Pakpak women by cross-strata and status in domestic family institutions and customary institutions as public institutions in the village of Pegagan Julu VIII with qualitative feminist methods. The feminist method emphasizes the research process that involves women through their life experiences in cases of indigenous marginalization experienced by them in their communities. Sources of data from women's life experiences which are also voiced by women themselves. Data collection techniques used FGD (Focus Group Discussion), in-depth interviews and participant observation of women who became research informants. The results of the study show that Pakpak women are cross-social strata with the potential to be indigenous conservationists, ironically, the reality is not directly proportional to their authority or authority to make decisions in any customary or customary work. The reason is that the dominance of patriarchal culture which is still strong in prioritizing men and lacking respect for women has influenced the weak bargaining position of women. The consequences that arise are that most customary practices and values are less pro-women, both at the family level and in the community. They experience exploitation especially from the poor strata, so that the poverty that is already heavy is faced by women, the more the burden of adat that must be borne by women. As a result women have the potential to experience double poverty (double poverty) and even tend to experience situations of alienation from their customs.

Representation within higher education curricula: contextualising and advocating for feminist digital activism

ABSTRACTCurricula do not fall onto the page fully formed, but are built around a series of choices made by educators. The curriculum establishes which knowledge is considered valid and which is not; the works of women and people of colour are typically underrepresented within curricula, and the issues affecting these groups are frequently neglected. This article examines three groups seeking to change this within higher education (Rhodes Must Fall, Why is My Curriculum White?, and Women Also Know Stuff) asking three questions: how can they be characterised? How do they operate? Why are they important? Drawing upon, and expanding, the work of Paolo Freire, this article argues that these groups utilise feminist principles and methods to demand a Pedagogy of the Oppressed. A feminist reading of the theory of representation, borrowed from analyses of legislative politics, helps us understand why higher education curricula should be more representative of society, allowing practitioners to advocate for change.

Feministička metodologija kao posebna znanstvena disciplina

The authors in the text affirm the feminist methodology as a way of specific research conceiving and as a newer special scientific discipline. Feminist approaches use various methods in their empiric researches, but, at this point, only the methods which the feminist approaches developed more intensively and which were used more often, have been discussed. It means that those were the methods which were more universally improved. Amongst methodological approaches and methods often used by feminists, feminist interviews are mentioned, feminist etnography, feminist poll, feminist experiment, feminist content analysis and feminist case study. Consequently, the authors tried to elaborate the possibilities of specification not only of feminist methods, but of feminist research either.In the end, they conclude that being released from the limits of traditional science, feminist approaches, in fact, identify and conceive their methodological approaches in researches. That way new feminist methodologies will prevent androcentric scientific manipulation. They will develop those methodological approaches and strategies within which maximal flexibility will be allowed. It is precisely this feminist approach which provides for multimethodological approach. After all, methodological heterogeneousness will provide for researching into the greater content scale, and achievement of wider research aims. Also, feminist research is transdisciplinary, therefore, besides sociological and cultural many other fields can be included, such as history, literary critique, philosophy, legal sciences etc. The authors conclude that there is no doubt that feminist methodology will broaden its limits of the former traditional (social and humanistic) researches, precisely by the diversity of methods and methodological approaches, and by persistence in their usage, development and methodological improvement.

African men and feminism: Reflections on using African feminism in research

abstractThe role of African men in African feminism is a precarious one. At the core are debates on whether African men can be feminist. Using my personal experiences as a starting point I navigate these debates. I delve into the politics of the term feminist and conclude, as Ratele and Botha (2013) did, that African men cannot be feminists but pro-feminists. The use of the identifier pro-feminist assists in not silencing African women’s voices. The adaptation of the identifier does not mean African men have no role to play in African feminism; in these spaces African men, acting as collaborators, can apply African feminist methods in their work as it provides rich analysis on the postcolonial position of women in Africa. I use my experiences of doing a PhD on abortion (a highly stigmatised research area in Africa) to illustrate how African feminist methods can enrich our analysis when researching Africa. I propose that it is only through collaborations between African women and men that issues of gender can continue to be addressed on the continent. African feminist methods provide useful tools for African men to challenge and problematise masculinities. I also warn against the danger of not reflecting on male privilege within the research space and how this can lead to a silencing of women’s voices.

(Re)framing Big Data: Activating Situated Knowledges and a Feminist Ethics of Care in Social Media Research

In this article, we seek to problematize assumptions and trends in “big data” digital methods and research through an intersectional feminist lens. This is articulated through a commitment to understand how a feminist ethics of care and Donna Haraway’s ideas about “situated knowledge” could work methodologically for social media research. Taking up current debates within feminist materialism and digital data, including big, small, thick, and “lively” data, the argument addresses how a set of coherent feminist methods and a corollary epistemology is being rethought in the field today. We consider how the “queering” of Hannah Arendt’s concept of “action” could contribute to a critically optimistic and inclusive reflection on the role of ethical political commitments to the subjects/objects of study imbricated in big data. Finally, we use our recent research to pose a number of practical questions about practices of care in social media research, pointing toward future research directions.

Second Annual Black Feminist Methods and Methodologies Working Symposium: Black Girlhood and Black Girlhood Studies, an Introduction with Selected Abstracts

Second Annual Black Feminist Methods and Methodologies Working Symposium: Black Girlhood and Black Girlhood Studies, an Introduction with Selected Abstracts

Predicting the next decade of tourism gender research

This article is an opinion piece, which briefly reviews the ways in which tourism is a hugely important sector for women's employment and entrepreneurship opportunities and ultimately for their life, leisure and business experiences. Its main purpose is to speculate on the future of tourism gender research and practice over the next decade. It suggests that, despite a maturing of the field, research utilising qualitative and feminist methods of inquiry continues to struggle for legitimacy in a field dominated by (post)scientific paradigms and approaches. The piece describes the role senior academics must play to shape a vibrant future for gender studies, through mentoring and by holding knowledge structures and hierarchies to account. The piece concludes by highlighting two areas in which tourism gender scholars could lead research on gendered human experiences in the next decade, namely AI and robotics and sexual exploitation and harassment.

Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court. By Kathryn M. Stanchi, Linda L. Berger, and Bridget J. Crawford (Eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of United States Supreme Court. By Kathryn M. Stanchi, Linda L. Berger, and Bridget J. Crawford (Eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.This collection of feminist rewritings of U.S. Supreme Court decisions is most recent contribution to burgeoning field of feminist judgments projects that have already emerged in number of common law jurisdictions, including Canada, England/Wales, Northern/Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. While feminist jurisprudence and feminist activism has led to demonstrable changes in legislative law reform, there is less evidence of impact of feminism in legal decisionmaking. These projects are motivated by belief that bringing feminist perspectives to legal decision-making can make difference to outcome, as well as reasoning, treatment of evidence and experience of witnesses. They aim to show that systemic inequalities are not intrinsic to law, but rather may be rooted in subjective (and often unconscious) beliefs and assumptions of decision makers (5).In this collection, 25 U.S. Supreme Court decisions have been rewritten to incorporate feminist methods and perspectives. From an initial list of 60 cases, Kathryn Stanchi, Linda Berger, and Bridget Crawford settled on 25 that they describe as the most significant gender justice cases decided by court from passage of final Civil Rights Amendment in 1870 to summer of 2015 (3). They called for authors to rewrite each of decisions from feminist perspective. A further group of authors have provided short commentaries to contextualize cases and comment on approaches taken.The introduction provides very useful account of project's methodology and identifies common feminist themes that emerged in rewritten decisions. Some authors have rewritten decision so that they arrive at different outcome; however, others have used feminist methods to change rhetorical conventions or relied upon alternative legal rules, framed issues differently or presented other rationales for decision. The authors were not required to write decisions that persuaded other justices. The editors point out that volume contains 15 re-imagined majority decisions, four concurring opinions, five dissenting opinions, and one partial concurrence/dissent. The majority opinions are almost equally divided between those that change ruling and those that changed to reasoning but not ruling.As with other feminist judgments projects, editors left it to authors of rewritten decisions to bring their own vision of what they meant by feminism. However, they identified their own approach to feminism as a movement and perspective historically grounded in politics, and one that motivates social, legal, and other battles for women's equality ... We believe that 'feminism' is not province of women only, and we acknowledge and celebrate multiple, fluid identities contained in category 'woman'. (3). Feminist methods employed by contributing authors include use of feminist practical reasoning, narrative feminist method, breaking rhetorical conventions and widening lens. The editors identify use of feminist theories: formal equality, anti-subordination/dominance feminism, anti-stereotyping, multi-dimensional theories, such as anti-essentialism and intersectionality, autonomy and agency, all of which they elaborate upon with reference to rewritten cases.In second chapter, Talking back: From feminist history and theory to feminist legal methods and judgments, Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol provides valuable framework for collection by outlining historical, theoretical, and methodological context of feminist history and theory. She identifies and explains key waves and branches of U.S. feminism and elaborates on feminist legal methods. There is also brief history of women in U. …

Treading on eggshells: ‘doing’ feminism in educational research

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the contradictions of ‘doing’ feminist research, and how the materiality of engaging in fieldwork magnifies the gap between ‘ideal’ versus ‘actual’ feminist ways of conducting research. Drawing on my Doctoral research with British-Pakistani mothers of children with SEND, I explore the ethical and methodological challenges of engaging with feminist methodology and how this contributes value to the research process when working with marginalized groups. I examine three principles of undertaking feminist methodology; firstly, the ethical challenges arising from conducting unstructured interviews in a non-therapeutic context with vulnerable participants. Secondly, I explore how feminist researchers can positively contribute to making a practical difference in the lives of the women they research with, thereby going beyond how feminist values of reciprocity and responsibility towards participants have traditionally been implemented in the field. Finally, I consider utilizing theoretical frameworks which help analyse data to reveal sites for social change. This paper concludes by noting that traditional feminist methods may not always be more ethical, and that as feminist researchers we must be willing to adopt a holistic view of feminist values, where the vulnerabilities of the researcher and participants are both respected and where methodology is adjusted accordingly.

ADDRESSING VIEWS OF KEY INFORMANTS WHO ARE WORKING FOR WOMEN RIGHTS REGARDING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Some married women are experiencing different types of intimate partner violence by their current or former husband. However, the awareness and services for those women are still needed. This study explored the key informants’ perspectives to provide more comprehensive services to those women. Qualitative feminist method was used and five participants were purposefully selected to interview in depth. Key informants reflected upon intimate partner violence as causes of intimate partner violence, why intimate partner violence cases were underreported, why didn’t women leave their violent partner, what they actually felt for intimate partner violence, gaps with intervention for survivors and planning for better outcome. It was found that awareness among women who experiencing violence and the people around them needed to be raised. And services provided for them also needed to be more concise and updated. Therefore, it is essentially important to extend education session to all people regarding violence against women. Collaboration and cooperation of government and non-governmental organizations is also helpful to decrease various kinds of violence committed to women.

“There’s No Crying in Police Work:” Exploring Police Shootings with Feminist Methods

Police shootings are events that result in psychological trauma to all involved, including police officers. Little work explores how officers and their social and professional networks that are involved in deadly police shootings cope with this event. Utilizing one case study, we hear how an officer involved in a deadly shooting, and those close to him, understand this event. We argue that feminist epistemologies and methods allow a better understanding of these events, which is essential if officers and the broader community are to heal.

Participation in Practice: A Case Study of a Collaborative Project on Sexual Offences in South Africa

In this article we critically reflect on ‘feminist research methods’ and ‘methodology’, from the perspective of a feminist research unit at a South African university, that explicitly aims to improve gender-based violence service provision and policy through evidence-based advocacy. Despite working within a complex and inequitable developing country context, where our feminist praxis is frequently pitted against seemingly intractable structural realities, it is a praxis that remains grounded in documenting the stories of vulnerable individuals and within a broader political project of working towards improving the systems that these individuals must navigate under challenging social and structural conditions. We primarily do this by working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing gender-based violence services in research conceptualisation, design and implementation. This raises unique and complex questions for feminist participatory research, which we illustrate through a case study of collaborative, participatory research with NGOs to improve health and criminal justice outcomes for survivors of sexual violence. Issues include the possibility of good intentions/good research designs failing; the suitability of participatory research in sensitive service provision contexts; the degree(s) of engagement between researchers, service providers (collaborators/participants) and research participants; as well as our ethical duties to do no harm and to promote positive, progressive change through personal narratives and other forms of evidence. Given the demands of our context and these core issues, we not only argue that there are no ‘feminist methods’, but also caution against the notion of a universal ‘feminist methodology’. Whilst we may all be in agreement about the centrality of gender to our research and analysis, the fundamental aims and assumptions of mainstream (Western) feminist approaches do not hold true in all contexts, nor are they without variance in mode, ideal degrees of participation and importance to social context.

Introduction the Wherewithal of Feminist Methods

Concepts, devices and practices have proliferated considerably since the signifier ‘feminist’ was first attached to ‘method’ and ‘methodology’, most prominently in the 1980s. Early discussions suggested that feminist research and knowledge-making demanded a distinct approach to empirical inquiry: one that recognised and overturned systemic gender disparities, validated women’s ‘experience’, rejected hierarchies between the researcher and research participant, and had emancipation and social change as its purpose. Some of these early defining aspirations have been used to experiment with method and continue to incite lively debate about the politics of knowledge production and even what might be the best feminist method (Wilkinson, 1999). Others have been recast by new technologies and the greater attention given to non-human modes of relating in areas such as science and technology studies, epigenomics and climatology. Yet, a commitment to make feminism mean something in the doing of research, cultural analysis, teaching, artistic practice and in activism, has continued to complicate and supplement the idea of a distinct feminist methodological imperative. It was from this point of enduring attachment, ‘returns’ as ‘products of repetition, of coming back to persistent troublings’ (Hughes and Lury, 2013, p.787), and curiosity that our call for papers for this themed issue asked: ‘Where are we with feminist methods?’

Vulnerable Writing as a Feminist Methodological Practice

This article discusses the possibility for vulnerable writing within feminist methodological approaches to research. Drawing upon a project that involved difficulties and tensions in conducting transnational research, including the documenting and telling of a partial narrative of an individual who set herself on fire, the article discusses what it might mean to focus more explicitly on explicating and recognising vulnerability in writing. In providing examples from working with a situated, localised analysis that engages feminist, postcolonial and queer theoretical approaches to attend to the particular and everyday, I address some of the hesitations and uncertainties in undertaking research and producing knowledge, and concerns with forms of reflexive practice. At the heart of the discussion is the question of a vulnerable ethics, of how it is possible for feminist methods to represent the lives of others, especially when stories fail in the telling, both in providing adequate explanations and in the ways that trauma and suffering can remain incommunicable. Included in this are concerns as to how we as researchers are affected within the production of research. As a form of receptivity and wounding, the article argues for vulnerable writing that challenges feminist methods to remain open and receptive to what will always resist sense-making, while continuing to respond to the demand that we do justice to the lives of others.