Feminist Research Approaches Research Articles

Auto-Ethnography, Action Research and Reflections on Home, Resistance and Survival

ABSTRACT Marginalised, minoritised, sexualised and racialised individuals often find themselves in positions where they are victimised, brutalised, demoralised and expected to justify their very existence. Global scholars have employed qualitative, ethnographic, anti-racist and feminist research approaches that focus on acknowledging and removing, not rearranging, unequal and violently oppressive social norms and cultural traditions. Many, whose works are shared here, have demonstrated that it is possible to debunk oppressive stereotypes in opposition to various forms of repression and oppression. This debunking makes space for addressing (through policy and law) the everyday brutal, supremacist, patriarchal, misogynistic practices (such as the accounts of gender based violence and femicide that I share). The aim here is to present auto-ethnography, action research and reflection as part of a body of work that embraces the need, and right, to make public the oftentimes demeaning and violent personal and professional experiences that have been accommodated and normalised within institutions claiming to be nurturing, democratic and adhering to principles of social justice and equity at local, national and global levels.

Decolonizing meanings climate crisis and land-based adaptions: From Indigenous women's perspectives in Western Canada

This paper explores the critical issue of decolonizing meanings within the context of the climate crisis and land-based adaptations, specifically focusing on Indigenous women's perspectives in Western Canada. The study focuses on the intricate relationship between Indigenous knowledge, culture, and the environment, emphasizing the unique insights that Indigenous women bring to the discourse surrounding climate change and adaptation. Drawing on the decolonial feminist research approach, community engagement, and participatory research methods, the paper highlights the diverse ways Indigenous women conceptualize the climate crisis and respond to the impacts of the climate crisis on their traditional lands. It critically examines the colonial legacies that have shaped environmental policies and interventions, often marginalizing Indigenous voices and perspectives. The findings advocate the importance of centering Indigenous women's knowledge and experiences in climate change discourse and policy-making. By decolonizing meanings, the paper advocates for a more inclusive and equitable approach to land-based adaptations that acknowledges the resilience and wisdom embedded in Indigenous land-based learning and practice. This research contributes to the ongoing dialogue on sustainable and culturally sensitive strategies for addressing the climate crisis, fostering a deeper understanding of the intersections between gender, Indigeneity, and environmental justice.

Climate change and its impact on the mental health well‐being of Indigenous women in Western cities, Canada

AbstractThis collaborative paper explores the interconnections between climate change and the mental health and well‐being of Indigenous women in Western Canada. As the impacts of climate change intensify globally, vulnerable populations, particularly Indigenous communities, face disproportionate and multifaceted challenges. Centering on Indigenous women in Western Canada, this study explores how the climate crisis magnifies Indigenous communities' mental health disparities. Drawing from the Indigenist feminist research approach, the investigation focuses on Indigenous women's lived experiences, perceptions, and land‐based coping strategies amidst climate challenges, while simultaneously addressing the unique social, cultural, and historical factors influencing their mental health vulnerabilities within the context of climate change. The findings shed light on the complex relationships between environmental degradation, ongoing colonial impacts on traditional practices, and the mental well‐being of Indigenous women. Concluding with implications for policy and community‐led interventions, this research contributes to the discourse on the intersectionality of climate change impacts and mental health, particularly focusing on Indigenous women in Western Canada.

Taking Women Seriously: A Feminist Approach to the Study of Colonial Violence

Since the end of official empire postcolonial research has changed our image of colonialism to foreground the multiple forms of violence that lay at the heart of it. Drawing on increasingly critical feminist research approaches, I argue that this understanding must and can be extended to our conception of white women’s role in colonialism. In order to push this research further, this paper advocates for a more systematic approach to the study of European women in colonial violence. Therefore, using case studies of both German and British empires, a theoretical argument is made to show how we can conceptualise white women’s violence in empire. Then, the paper proposes a systematic approach to how such studies of European women’s role in colonial violence may be undertaken by combining feminist International Relations scholarship and postcolonial feminisms with Bourgois’ continuum of violence.

Women Leadership in the Emergence of Bangladesh: A Study on Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib

The emancipation of Bangladesh occupies a significant place in world history. Both men and women of Bangladesh valiantly participated in the liberation struggle and consequently, in the nation-building process. However, throughout the long period, liberation has been constructed as an exclusively male endeavour that ignores the contribution made by women in the process of bringing the nation into being. As women played an active and significant role in the process of constructing this nation, the need is now to reconstruct the traditional ways of representation as well as to see the role of women's leadership in the emergence of Bangladesh with a special focus on the life of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib. In this regard, accommodating qualitative research methodology, more specifically the feminist research approach, this paper aims to explore the leadership of Bangamata by adorning the ‘Behavioural Theory of Leadership’ along with ‘Transformational Leadership Theory’ that emphasizes the actions, not on mental or inner characteristics of a leader. These theories centre on how an individual's surroundings structure that person into a leader. This paper has depicted the leadership of Bangamata in the creation of Bangladesh and its political-economic journey onwards. Social Science Review, Vol. 40(1), Jun 2023 Page 1-20

Reflexivity, embodiment, and ethics of care in rangeland political ecology: reflections of three feminist researchers on the experience of transdisciplinary knowledge co-production

Although there is a growing interest in transdisciplinary knowledge co-production approaches applied to rangeland political ecology, the research paradigms and methodologies still dominating this field of research leave little room for equitable engagement with research participants and genuine action-oriented research. In this article, we provide a reflection on new practices grounded in feminist studies of science and care ethic literature to orient transgressive and engaged transdisciplinary political rangeland ecology research. Feminist epistemologies call for reflection on who produces knowledge and how such knowledge is used and shared. Feminist practices, such as reflexivity, embodiment, reciprocity, and care, cultivate awareness of the power dynamics embedded in the research process and motivate researchers to counteract asymmetrical or extractive relationships when we identify them. We first introduce the scholarship that inspires key principles of our feminist research approach and then reflect on our experiences as researchers and as activists working with Spanish and Catalan networks of women pastoralists. Three research questions guide our reflective process: (i) how can feminist theories of knowledge co-production contribute to rangeland political ecology; (ii) how can feminist methodologies be applied in practice so that collaboration between women pastoralists, their organizations, and researchers is mutually reinforcing, care-full, and action-oriented; and (iii) what are the challenges and limitations of our experiences to foster transformation and emancipation in knowledge co-production processes?

"Oh yes! over-preparing for meetings is my jam :)": The Gendered Experiences of System Administrators

In the system and network administration domain, gender diversity remains a distant target. The experiences and perspectives of sysadmins who belong to marginalized genders (non cis-men) are not well understood beyond the fact that sysadmin work environments are generally not equitable. We address this knowledge gap in our study by focusing on the ways in which sysadmins from marginalized genders manage their work in men-dominated sysadmin work spaces and by understanding what an inclusive workplace would look like. Using a feminist research approach, we engaged with a group of 16 sysadmins who are not cis-men via six online focus groups. We found that managing the impact of gender identity in the sysadmin workplace means demonstrating excellence and going above and beyond in system administration tasks, and also requires performing additional care work not expected from cis men. Furthermore, our participants handle additional layers of work due to gender considerations and to actively find community in the workplace. We found that sysadmins manage by going above and beyond in their tasks, performing care work and doing extra layers of work because of gender considerations, and finding community in the workplace. To mitigate this additional workload, we recommend more care for care work. For future research, we recommend the use of feminist lenses when studying sysadmin work in order to provide more equitable solutions that ultimately contribute to improving system security by fostering a just workplace.

Negotiating and Managing Gay Identities in Multiple Heteronormative Spaces: The Experiences of Black Gay Mineworkers in South Africa

ABSTRACT Sexual diversity is a contentious topic in South Africa because many people still hold the perception that sexual identity can only be understood in heteronormative terms. This article adopts a feminist research approach to investigate how black gay male identities are constructed and managed at home, within friendships and in mining workplaces, drawing on data collected from five black gay male mineworkers. It opens up discussion on gay mineworkers’ experiences in a country where diversity is upheld and celebrated through a democratic constitution, yet gay men must often negotiate and manage their sexual identities to fit in with the dominant heteronormative discourses present in different spaces in society, including adopting false heterosexual identities in particular spaces, which limits their freedoms. The study argues that experiences of constructing and managing black gay identities in heteronormative spaces is guided by the level of acceptance and tolerance perceived by gay people.

Photovoice: documenting lives in aquaculture and fisheries through a gendered photo lens

Photovoice is a research approach in which participants use photography to tell stories of issues important to them. Is Photovoice a suitable feminist research method for gender in fisheries and aquaculture? Literature on feminist research methodologies was reviewed to establish four criteria, namely, does Photovoice: (1) embody feminist research approaches? (2) use safe methods and sharing of results? (3) enable inclusion and empowerment for women? (4) reach decision makers as a potential vehicle for change? Forty articles on Photovoice based research were assessed for their relevance to the four criteria and 24 of these selected for detailed review. The evidence is that Photovoice can engage and empower women – as researchers - to gain insights into their own worlds, widen their community networks, reflect on current reality, and portray through photos and explanations what would be a preferred better reality. It also provides the primary researcher an ‘inside looking out’ perspective. Photovoice methods are aligned with feminist research approaches because they consider ethical issues to safeguard and potentially empower participants. Participants can gain empowerment by accessing decision makers who are normally beyond their reach, although action and change is not guaranteed. In developed, and developing countries, where the majority of women are employed, Photovoice research is applicable to fisheries and aquaculture.

Making feminism count: integrating feminist research principles in large-scale quantitative research on violence against women and girls

ABSTRACTApplying a feminist approach to research on ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) is critical because gender inequality is an underlying driver of VAWG, and feminist research aims to empower women and girls, as well as challenge prevailing inequalities through the research process itself. However, feminist research approaches have not historically been applied in the international development sector, although statistical evidence on what works to end VAWG is in high demand from governments and donors. In this article, we explore how researchers could practically reconcile an explicitly feminist undertaking, like ending VAWG, when accepted research practices within this field employ methods that are historically not informed by feminist praxis. We argue that quantitative research and feminist research approaches are not mutually exclusive, rather, they can (and do) overlap. Drawing on five decades of combined experience conducting quantitative studies on VAWG in low- and middle-income countries around the world, we highlight the challenges and opportunities for incorporating feminist research principles throughout the research process – from design, community engagement, data collection, analysis, dissemination, and policy influence. We draw on practical examples from research conducted in countries as diverse as Timor-Leste, Kiribati, and Sri Lanka, among others, illustrating that it is not only possible to apply feminist research principles to large-scale, quantitative survey research on VAWG, but that this should become a priority for good development practice.

Researching women’s leadership in Asia and the Pacific – reflections on feminist research approaches in design and in practice

ABSTRACTThis article explores how the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) and partners have navigated the complexities and, sometimes competing, priorities, of feminist research methodology and values, in our practice. It demonstrates how, ultimately, decision-making processes along the way have been guided by the feminist values that underpin the research designs and the assertion that the process is as important as the outcome. We reflect in particular on the design and practice of two research projects undertaken by IWDA with partner women’s rights organisations in Asia Pacific. Under the Women’s Action for Voice and Empowerment programme, the projects – the Women’s Leadership Pathways research project and the Public Perceptions of Women as Leaders research project – explore the enablers and barriers to women’s leadership, from both public and private perspectives. The designs of both projects are mindful of hierarchies of authority and knowledge within the research processes that reinforce the status quo and power dynamics between the ‘expert’ and the ‘subject’ of the research. They also challenge the dynamics of power around the production and ownership of knowledge in academic spaces. They do this through collaborative designs that are locally led and owned, and through a strong valuing of women’s voices in research.

Auto-Methods in Feminist Geography

Given the ubiquitous encouragement of self-expression in academia, informally through tweeting and blogging, and formally through the highly stylized curriculum vitae, we find it curious that scholars using autobiographical writing and autoethnography in their research still need to provide basic rationales for choosing to use one’s own experience as data. Criticism routinely considers that telling one’s life story to be narcissistic navel-gazing. Yet there are scholars, in particular feminists, who argue that writing one’s life is an effective way to bring analytical clarity to some types of research. In writing their lives, researchers entangle themselves into their work in many different ways. They can, for example, use their own life to organize, bound, and shape their inquiry. Or they can analyze their own lives alongside the experiences of the people whom they have talked with or interviewed. Or they can trace pathways of power by recounting encounters they have had with institutions. In this introduction, we write about auto-methods, those long-standing feminist research approaches that treat researchers’ own stories and experiences as data. The contributions in this forum both unsettle conventional assumptions about auto-methods and show how feminists are pushing the boundaries of what counts as auto-methods in research. We frame our reading of these contributions by problematizing three key concepts: experience, memory, and data. Our goal here is not to provide a blanket rationale for the use of any self-expression; rather, our goal is to show that there still are radical possibilities for generating analytical insights by using one’s own experience as data.

Scrapbooking men's intrusions: ‘It's nice to have a place where you can rant about things that people normally tell you you're over-reacting about’

This article presents an in-depth study of eight women's experiences and conceptions of men's intrusions in the UK. ‘Men's intrusions’ is posited here as a useful concept for exploring a lived continuum of men's practices in and across digital, online and offline space. Typically, research on men's intrusions has focused on specific and bounded space, neglecting the interrelation and collapse of sites and spaces into each other. This paper addresses this omission and finds that participants experienced a wide range of complex, multi-faceted intrusions, all unique, but sharing the common characteristics of being simultaneously unexpected and continuous, and of imposing gendered-self-awareness with lasting negative effect. In the process of making sense of their experiences, participants adopted different frames for conceptualising men's intrusions, three of which were identified: an individual frame, a grey frame and feminist frame/s. This sense-making process was largely facilitated by the activity of scrapbooking; the research used analogue and digital scrapbooking methodologically to represent diverse intrusions occurring across diverse mediums. The findings have implications for both developing and complicating understandings of the continuum of men's violence against women and also for diversifying feminist research approaches to gender, space and violence.

The Czech intimate presence of perinatal loss in the Post-Socialist absence of institutionalised humanity

Significant changes towards an intimate death take place in the Czech Republic regarding perinatal loss. However, these practices are often initiated by individual actors or civic initiatives. This “intimate presence” of perinatal loss including last rites stands in sharp contrast to absence of structural, institutional changes brought about by politicians or professional organizations towards better hospital or social management of death, bereavement and body disposal. Tensions of expert knowledge and power of biomedical authoritative knowledge form the setting for opposition or negligence coming from the hospital management, birth registers or funeral homes.The article draws on a qualitative sociological inquiry into practices of perinatal loss in the Czech Republic. The fieldwork data entail in-depth interviews with key actors and document analysis inspired by feminist research approach to reproductive loss. The aim is to show and help understand the frictions between emerging more intimate practices of grief, bereavement and last rites related to perinatal loss in the context of Post-Socialist and late-modern paternalised healthcare, medicalisation of life-events and concealment of death. The complexity of Post-Socialist absent or faded away institutionalised humanity regarding death and emerging practices challenging the status quo in perinatal loss treatment open up fruitful field for analytical inquiry.

Postcolonial Patriarchal Nativism, Domestic Violence and Transnational Feminist Research in Contemporary Uganda

This article examines the development of a multidimensional, transnational feminist research approach from and within Uganda in relation to a high-profile case of domestic violence and femicide of a middle-class, upper-caste Indian migrant woman in Kampala in 1998. It explores indigenous Ugandan public and Ugandan Asian/Indian community interpretations and the dynamics of cross-racial feminist mobilisation and protest that emerged in response to the Joshi-Sharma domestic violence case. In doing so, it advocates for a transnational feminist research approach from and within Uganda and the Global South that works against the grain of nationalist and nativist biases in existing feminist scholarly trends. This approach lays bare power inequalities and internal tensions within and across racialised African and Asian communities, and thus avoids the romanticisation of cross-racial feminist African-Asian solidarities.

Multidimensional, Gender-Sensitive Poverty Measurement: Perspectives from Fiji

The central argument in this article is that existing measures of poverty in Fiji and the Pacific are not sensitive to gender for three reasons. First, they use the household rather than the individual as the unit of analysis. This masks inequalities in the intra-household distribution of resources and burdens, resulting in inadequate understanding of gendered poverty (Bessell 2014). Second, they rely on data sources, which are often gender blind, limiting the potential for understanding the gendered nature of poverty. Third, poverty studies are often informed by experts without taking into account local dimensions of poverty and reflecting the interests and views of poor women and men. Drawing from the fieldwork in Fiji and employing a qualitative participatory approach, this article illuminates differences in the extent and nature of poverty at the individual level based on the participants’ poverty criteria. The rationale for engendering the measurement of poverty and the ways in which feminist research approaches inform research methodology and methods are discussed. Key findings on the gendered dimensions of poverty and hardship are presented along with what these may suggest as important steps toward the development of a new, gender-sensitive measure of deprivation. It is hoped that the gender perspective will contribute to widening the concept of poverty by identifying the need to measure poverty in a way that accounts for its complexity and multidimensionality.

Mapping out the Field of Gender and Buyer-Seller Relationships: Developing a New Perspective

Buyer-seller relationships have long been of intense interest to marketing academics and practitioners, most particularly within the domain of business-to-business markets, but also more recently within the purview of business-to-consumer markets. This paper looks at the role of gender in buyer-seller relationships. Covering the literature from sales and from consumer behaviour, the general lack of a specific gender perspective in the interactions between buyers and sellers is identified and weaknesses in the current literature are highlighted. It identifies an opportunity to develop and apply feminist research practice to this increasingly important area. The benefits, opportunities, and limitations of the feminist research approach are specified and some initial conclusions presented.

Living on the Streets in Canada: A Feminist Narrative Study of Girls and Young Women

Homelessness affects thousands of girls and young women in Canada. Terms that are commonly used to describe the homeless include lazy, mentally ill, middle aged, and male. The reality is that homelessness is not limited to a particular age, gender, or ethnocultural group, or to individuals of any single intellectual ranking. As a result of the prevailing stereotypes, little research has been conducted on homelessness among adolescent females, making it difficult to capture an accurate and comprehensive picture of the full scope of the problem. The purposes of this feminist narrative study were to (1) explore the intersections between homeless-ness and health among adolescent girls, with particular attention to the influence of contextual factors such as violence, gender, and poverty; and (2) to examine how these young women access health care, barriers they encounter, and factors that contribute to their health promotion. The sample consisted of ten females, ages 16–21, who were interviewed either individually or in small groups. Consistent with feminist research approaches, the interviews were conducted in an interactive manner in order to encourage critical reflection and dialogue. Data analysis consisted of a thematic analysis of the participants' experiences. Findings revealed that most girls had fled from difficult, and at times dangerous, situations at home to lives on the street that brought a new set of challenges, including a multitude of health problems and exposure to violence, chronic poverty, and discrimination. Many barriers to effective health care were described. In this article, the findings of the research will be presented and implications for health and social service providers will be addressed, including recommendations for programming and policy.

Research Alternative for Nursing Practice: A Sociological Perspective.

This paper, utilized the feminist sociological approach, rooted in phenomenology, to argue the point that nursing has a distinct knowledge base, which is not granted in empirico-analytic science and its methodology alone, but profess also in lived experiences of nurses, involved in caring relationships with their clients or patients. The paper takes off by assessing generally, the theoretical foundations of contemporary nursing in our society. The fact that nurses use varied forms of knowledge in their day-to-day practice is also captured. This information enables me argue out some research approaches compatible with nursing practice in addition to science as a conventional theoretical foundation for nursing. In this paper, the feminist research approach, is being recommended as a complementary research methodology in nursing practice. Gender and Behaviour Vol. 2 2004: 158-171

Gendering environmental geography

Despite sharing common interests in being advocates for social change, feminist and environmental geographers have yet to acknowledge interests they share in common. Environmental geographers, particularly those focused on policy and institutional analysis, have not embraced feminist theories or methodologies, while few feminist geographers have engaged issues associated with environmental policy‐making. Our purpose is to initiate a dialogue about how linkages might be forged between feminist and environmental geography, particularly among Canadian environmental geographers working on institutional and policy analysis. We begin by illustrating that environmental geographers working on Canadian problems have neglected to introduce gender as an analytical category or feminist conceptual frameworks to guide their research. Second, we identify four feminist research approaches that should also be pursued in environmental geography. Third, we consider examples of how feminist perspectives might be incorporated in three themes of environmental geography: institutional and policy analysis, participatory environmental and management systems and alternative knowledge systems. Fourth, we consider two research frameworks—political ecology and environmental justice—and suggest that these may be useful starting points for integrating feminist analysis into environmental geography. Last, we summarise our suggestions for how future research of feminist and environmental geographers could benefit from a closer association.