Feminist Research Methodology Research Articles

Enacting Reciprocity and Solidarity: Critical Access as Methodology

ABSTRACT Drawing on the growing field of critical access studies, this article positions critical access as a research methodology that aligns with feminist praxis and disability politics. We begin by mapping our central concept in relation to literature on feminist disability studies, crip methodology, feminist methodology, and critical access. We then demonstrate critical access methodology in practice drawing on our collective research programs. Our first example comes from a workshop exploring citizen photojournalism as part of Stretching Our Stories and takes up non-linear and unverifiable journalistic accounts by disabled people. We follow this with an example from Practicing the Social, a three-day online artistic research and knowledge mobilisation event, which foregrounds the complexity of structuring pace and time. We conclude by suggesting that approaching critical access as methodology makes it possible to embrace moments of friction. Throughout this article, we argue that access, when taken up critically, becomes a transformative process that can contribute to the development of a feminist research methodology that supports research directed towards crip-feminist futurities.

The Tyranny of Modern Mothers: Understanding the Lived Realities of Motherhood among Middle-class Professional Women in Dhaka

Motherhood, which generally relates to a combination of joy, pleasure, and fulfilment, frequently defines the social status of women within their families and communities. Although as a social institution, motherhood provides women with expanded authority and responsibilities, these are frequently defined by gendered social norms and behaviours. As a result, there is a significant disparity between the myths and celebratory appeal of motherhood and the everyday realities that mothers encounter. Particularly, among Dhaka’s middle-class, where professional mothers are expected to strike a balance between their personal and professional roles, the challenges and constraints of motherhood double. In Bangladesh, the societal pressure on women to become mothers and fulfil their obligations results in a gendered division of labour and multifaceted problems that hardly received adequate attention in existing feminist literature. This empirical study explored the meanings and manifestations of motherhood, as well as the tension, role conflict, and dilemma that middle-class mothers in Dhaka encounter in everyday personal and professional lives. Guided by the principles of feminist research methodology, this qualitative study employed twenty-five Life History Interviews (LHI) and two Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with professional mothers in Dhaka. The results of this ethnographic study indicate that professional mothers in Dhaka experience challenges with household chores, caregiving roles, and professional responsibilities, which add a triple burden to their everyday lives. Social Science Review, Vol. 40(1), Jun 2023 Page 57-72

Women Representation in the Military: The Case of the South African National Defence Force, Limpopo Province

Promoting gender equality and women empowerment is a long standing item on the development agenda nationally and internationally. It is also item number five of the 2030 millennium development goals; gender equality, ending all discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic right but a human right. Research has proven that empowering women and girls helps economic growth and development. Empowering women is necessary for women’s enhancement in society and the workplace, the military is no exception. This paper argues on the gender mainstreaming policies in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and whether they are adequately implemented to ensure equal representation of women in all military ranks including combat. The researchers used Liberal Feminist Theory (LFT), which advocates for women’s right to be seen and acknowledged as human rights. The researchers employed a feminist qualitative research methodology and exploratory design. Snowballing sampling technique was used to select participants in the SANDF military air-force base in Hoedspruit, Limpopo and saturation was reached after the fifteenth participant for in-depth interviews. Data was analysed using Thematic Analysis (TA). Findings in the study revealed that women in the military are of the view that the military is making strides in ensuring an equal representation between men and women, however women view themselves as less represented than their male counterparts, regardless of the policies put in place. Results also revealed that that the lack of representation of women in the military is due to the SANDF not being meant for women. The paper therefore concludes that women are not equally represented to their male counterparts in the military and that there is need for improvement towards this in senior and management positions within the SANDF. The study recommends that the SANDF as a government institution could also create a sense of urgency to all the units in the quest to ensure equal representation of women. Creating a sense of urgency not only will ensure that more women can be part of the military, but will also create an awareness of the necessity for women to join the army.

Feminization of migration: Redistribution of village government powers and resources to protect women migrant workers

Law Number 18 of 2017 has significantly expanded the role of village govern-ments in protecting migrant workers, specifically by focusing on the social andeconomic empowerment of Indonesian migrant workers. Within TulungagungDistrict, two villages—Sukorejo Wetan and Tanen—have already establishedTask Forces for the Prevention and Handling of Violence Against Women Mi-grant Workers and Laws on the Elimination of Human Trafficking. This re-search, conducted in these villages, aims to achieve three objectives. Firstly, itseeks to identify the actors involved in protecting women migrant workers andunderstand the relationships between them. Secondly, it aims to describe theaccessibility and role of migrant and post-migrant women’s groups in protect-ing women migrant workers. Finally, it aims to explore the existence of pro-feminist policies in this context. Using a feminist research methodology, thestudy employs qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews and documentstudies. The findings highlight an asymmetric collaboration between civil so-ciety groups and the village government, with civil society dominating theformation and implementation of activities by the Officer Unit (Satgas). Thisasymmetry is intertwined with the absence of resource redistribution from thevillage government, particularly in terms of budget allocation.

Writing wrongs- an analysis of the use of digital platforms as forums offering gender justice for sexual crimes in South Asia

This article considers the question how digital platforms are increasingly used by women and for women to seek forms of gender justice in South Asia. The research question is: are digital platforms offering new avenues to obtain substantive “gender justice” to women victim-survivors of sexual crimes in South Asia, and with what consequences? In answering this question the article draws from feminist research methodology, with a focus on post-colonial feminism. The article is based on an analysis of secondary data through desk research, complemented by key informant interviews with women activists in the region. Traversing select key rape cases from select South Asian countries where there has been a large public outcry on digital platforms, the article considers firstly, why women seek digital spaces as forums of justice. Secondly, the major demands for “justice” vocalized in the public outcry. Thirdly, the consequences of these calls for victim-survivors. Through this, it draws insights into the attempted re-negotiation of “justice” through public outcry in digital spaces, and resultant regurgitation of the same kinds of patriarchy and injustice in these alternative forums.

Ethical challenges in participatory research with children and youth

The growth of relational, participatory, collaborative and emergent research approaches in recent years has brought new ethical challenges for research with children and youth. These approaches require greater consideration of the specific social and cultural contexts of the research, along with the greater emphasis on researcher–participant relationships that often occur over sustained periods of time. Very few tools are available to help researchers think through the everyday ethical dilemmas such research can raise. In this article, we review the theoretical underpinnings of feminist and indigenous research methodologies that have encouraged these emerging approaches. Through examining an 18-month Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project case study, we critically review ethical moments relating to negotiating consent over a sustained period of time, enhancing co-design and navigating power issues between adult and youth researchers. We conclude with a number of questions to ‘think with’ when reflecting on ethical research with children and youth.

Feminist Methodology and Contemporary Feminist Research in India

Feminist methodology seeks to assess knowledge-generating strategies in terms of their suitability for feminist research. Feminist methodology is not to be identified with any particular object of study or specific set of theories, doctrines or knowledge claims. This type of research is a self-reflexive inquiry that seeks knowledge for emancipation and which challenges asymmetric and inequitable constructions. Historically, feminist research expanded the theories and objects of investigation to a focus on women, then their work moved towards recognizing gender disparities and then even more specifically moved to contemporary critiques that include the investigation of the types of methods used in all research; the analysis of how theories are incorporated into the research; the critique of how evidence is gathered; and determination at higher levels of abstraction in what counts as truth and authority. The present study will try to focus on problematic of feminist research and what should be the basic components of feminist research methodology in contemporary India.

Representasi substantif Organisasi PEREMPUAN AMAN di Sumatera Utara dan Nusa Tenggara Timur

This article analyzes substantive representation of PEREMPUAN AMAN organization. This paper fills the gap as the existing research only analyzes women's organizations at the level of descriptive representation. By exploring substantive representation of PEREMPUAN AMAN, this paper reveal contribution of PEREMPUAN AMAN in increasing the capacity of indigenous women in their organizing area. The qualitative approach and feminist research methodology used in this study to capture the experiences of indigenous women members of the PEREMPUAN AMAN Community Daily Management (PHKom) Menteng, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra and Community Daily Management (PHKom) Kompetar, Nagekeo, East Nusa Tenggara. These two locations were chosen to represent the 3T (Outermost, Frontier, Disadvantaged) region. The finding shows that PEREMPUAN AMAN has succeeded in bringing their organization to the level of substantive representation. The substantial work carried out by PEREMPUAN AMAN in the organizing area of ​​PHKom Menteng and PHKom Kompetar has succeeded in increasing the capacity of indigenous women individually and collectively: 1) indigenous women learn to organize themselves to fight for their rights, 2) indigenous women braved to voice their opinions during the lobbying process with the Local House of Representative and the regent, 3) indigenous women eager to run as candidates for legislative members, hamlet heads and Village Consultative Bodies (BPD), despite encountering obstacles, and 4) indigenous women became the driving force of their community by conducting various social works.

Researching Gender Relations in Africa: Directions and Landmarks in Feminist Research Methodology

This article is a reflection on critical perspectives on researching gender relations. It is an overview of the landmarks in feminist methodology and the quest for greater inventiveness and sensibility in researching gender relations in Africa. Critical questions include: What milestones have been reached and why? What flaws do we need to correct and what will it take? The article was generated as part of feminist research methodology training at CODESRIA. It is designed to be a contribution to the ongoing African feminist conversation around the critical need for debunking colonial discourses and developmentalist buzzwords in researching gender relations, and the need for African realities to inform research and knowledge generation on gender relations on the continent.

(Re) Stor(y)ing Class: Working-Class Women, Smartness, and Higher Education

For Canadian-born working-class women, university is often characterized through the axioms of “expanding one’s mind,” “bettering one’s life,” and “saving oneself from a life of hardship.” Associated with these adages is “smartness,” a signature orientation of the academy and a designation that has often excluded the working-class. Our article asks: What does it mean to be a working-class woman in higher education in Canada? How do working-class women negotiate competing notions of “smartness” existing between the university and their home communities? In what ways do these women resist their exclusions from “smartness” and the university project? We answer these questions by drawing on memory stories written by six working-class women who attended or were attending university. The memory stories were written at a series of workshops that one of the authors organized employing the feminist research methodology of Collective Biography. Our analysis illustrates some strategies that working-class and racialized women may use in their encounter with the university including downplaying the value of their working-class backgrounds to make way for the new knowledge to be gained in university, drawing on the strength of community for support, and positioning working-class common sense knowledge as superior to the book knowledge privileged in university. Each story involves the necessity of navigating competing notions of smartness that marks belonging within the university, family, and community.

Notes from Mni Sota Makoce: Native Pacific Feminist Re/search

ABSTRACT A short reflection on Native Pacific Feminist research methods and methodologies in higher education institutions and places on Turtle Island. Sailiata weaves her academic and personal genealogies together to ground the connections between her scholarship and teaching in the Midwest and Oceania.

Feminist research and fieldwork methodology

The topic of the present paper is conducting feminist research in South Asia and the way politics works in this process. It is specifically based on the experiences of empirical work done in Kerala, the southernmost state in India, which is unique in being one of the only two states with a strong communist movement. In addition, the numerous religions, castes, and communities of the Kerala region can be profitably analyzed in connection with the policies of the Left, emerging feminist movements, and mechanisms of power. As an indigenous, feminist activist and researcher, I have been working with a Western feminist scholar who is also a university professor, in a project concerning marriage and inheritance in Kerala in the twentieth century. The project is based on various archival materials, as well as interviews with families of different classes and communities, politicians, and religious leaders. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate upon methodological experiences gained from my collaboration as a research assistant for the Western scholar. Specifically, I wish to explore the way power, as based on gender, ethnicity, generation, and the researcher’s position in society, operated when data was collected and interviews carried out. The main thesis of my study is that, through our cooperation, we managed to overcome difficulties that each of us, working alone, would not have been able to surmount. Our production of “knowledge” must be seen in the light of the complex political and cultural power relations prevailing in Kerala, as well as of our own position in society and the role we each played within the research project itself.

Storying gender equality in Northwest Uganda: Educators develop contextually- and culturally responsive stories in professional development courses

Although gender equality is a stated goal of Ugandan national educational policies and curricula, cultivating gender equality in schools requires gender-responsive pedagogical approaches as well as Learning and Teaching Resource Materials (LTRMs). This paper reports on a research project conducted with a group of in-service, pre-primary and primary educators in Northwest Uganda during two week-long professional development workshops. Using a qualitative, multimodal, feminist participatory action research methodology, we explored gender theory as well as local gender constructs and their impact on educational opportunities and experiences, and ways in which gender constructs and orientations might be reimagined through stories, especially written in Mother Tongue and depicting local cultural contexts. Findings reveal that professional development opportunities can support teachers to explore and gain deeper insight into understandings of gender and gender-based issues, and create contextually- and linguistically-age-appropriate resources (stories) that interest students, promote gender equality, and meet curricular objectives.

The Wounded Healer: Feminist Leadership Nurtured by American Zen Buddhism

Within the field of gender and leadership studies there is a call for alternative theoretical and methodological innovations that would “enter uncharted territory” (Martin and Collinson, 2002: 255) and “navigate roads not yet taken” (Kark, 2004: 173). This study takes up the call by exploring gender and leadership in American Zen communities with a researcher-centered approach. I developed a Zen-informed feminist research methodology in the process of doing a field study at four major American Zen centers, three of which had been directly impacted by sex scandals of founding abbots. Based on research findings I propose a Zen-informed feminist leadership model in relation to my own emotional and spiritual transformation as a result of the research. The paper illustrates how a Zen-informed feminist research as well as Zen-informed feminist leadership can be healing, empowering and transformational.

Women’s Experience of Vulnerability in Flood in the context of Northern Region of Bangladesh

Flood is one of the most common and devastating disasters in the northern region of Bangladesh. The objective of this research is to investigate how and to what extent flood has been affecting people’s livelihood and how men and women are taking steps to mitigate the impact and cope up with the situation. The research work was conducted based on a qualitative point of view and the lens of feminist research methodology. This study has revealed that flood-induced vulnerability affects men and women differently. Women experience the severity of the flood and household food insecurity much more than men as women are responsible for maintaining the household, taking care of everyone, and playing the role of buffer and absorber the impact. To mitigate the impact and cope up with the devastating effects of floods, men and women employ different strategies. While men go to nearer or far towns or cities for alternative livelihoods, women remain within the household and try to mitigate the impact. This study is conducted through qualitative research techniques such as semi-structured interview, focus group discussion, case study, and conversational exchange method and aims at contributing to a broader understanding of women’s experience of flood-induced vulnerability in the context of the northern region of Bangladesh.

Women’s Experience of Vulnerability in Flood in the context of Northern Region of Bangladesh

Flood is one of the most common and devastating disasters in the northern region of Bangladesh. The objective of this research is to investigate how and to what extent flood has been affecting people’s livelihood and how men and women are taking steps to mitigate the impact and cope up with the situation. The research work was conducted based on a qualitative point of view and the lens of feminist research methodology. This study has revealed that flood-induced vulnerability affects men and women differently. Women experience the severity of the flood and household food insecurity much more than men as women are responsible for maintaining the household, taking care of everyone, and playing the role of buffer and absorber the impact. To mitigate the impact and cope up with the devastating effects of floods, men and women employ different strategies. While men go to nearer or far towns or cities for alternative livelihoods, women remain within the household and try to mitigate the impact. This study is conducted through qualitative research techniques such as semi-structured interview, focus group discussion, case study, and conversational exchange method and aims at contributing to a broader understanding of women’s experience of flood-induced vulnerability in the context of the northern region of Bangladesh.

Calling for a Paradigm Shift in the Study of Gender in Engineering Education

<strong>Background:</strong> Dominant discourse regarding gender in engineering and engineering education relies on simplistic notions of gender as a rigid binary, which obscures the existence of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people and the gender dynamics they experience. <strong>Purpose:</strong> This paper seeks to address the limits of the dominant gender discourse and research paradigm and propose new paths forward. This article calls researchers to intentionally transform their approach and framing of gender to create gender equity for all. <strong>Scope:</strong> An examination of existing literature in engineering education is put against prevailing theories of gender and human difference from across academia. The overwhelming majority of literature in the field exists within a reductive gender binary. TGNC students and professionals are largely invisible in engineering education research and theory and this exclusion causes harm to individuals as well as our community as a whole. Such exclusion is not limited to engineering contexts but is found to be a central component of systemic TGNC marginalization in higher education and in the United States. <strong>Discussion:</strong> We call for a substantive disciplinary shift towards studying the deep complexity of gender informed by, and accountable to, literature on gender theory, queer studies, and feminist research methodology. We propose interventions for engineering education researchers categorized into three levels: 1) Micro—to recognize gender diversity in engineering education; 2) Meso—to describe and analyze the experiences of TGNC students in research; and 3) Macro—to transform our discipline’s conceptualization and theoretical framing of gender.

Blending Feminist, Indigenous, and Participatory Action Research Methodologies: Critical Reflections from the Northeastern Ontario Research Alliance on Human Trafficking

This article critically reflects on the multiyear collaborative research project of the Northeastern Ontario Research Alliance on Human Trafficking. Drawing on the concept of Two-Eyed Seeing, we present a methodological model that builds on the strengths and commonalities of feminist, decolonial, Indigenous, and participatory action research (PAR). We analyze our research and decolonial praxis as a form of collaborative allyship with, by, and for Indigenous peoples, especially women and persons with lived experience in human trafficking and sex work. We highlight the gaps between theory and practice that have occurred in terms of control over the research, the actions that ensued from such gaps, and whose voice is represented. We also call attention to the power differentials operating not only between researchers and participants but also between the stakeholders whom we sought to engage. The article offers a set of lessons learned for others seeking to do social justice research in Indigenous-settler contexts, while also highlighting and theorizing the relatively successful aspects of our research.

Enacting Feminist Methodologies in Research Toward Reproductive Justice

Reporting on the development of an ongoing qualitative research project with clients of midwifery care in New Brunswick, Canada, this article details the ways that methodology is complexly interwoven with political praxis. Working through the development of this project, this article models one way to enact politically engaged feminist research at each stage of the research process, from developing the research question, through research design, data collection, analysis, and theory generation. In the process, three core principles of feminist research methodologies are extended: co-construction of knowledge, researcher reflexivity, and reciprocal relationships in research. This research is caught up in and responds to a fraught political context where supports for reproductive healthcare are limited, and midwifery, abortion, and gender-affirming care are all framed as “fringe” services that exceed the austerity budget of the province. Participants engaged in this study with a clear understanding of this political terrain and approached interviews as an opportunity to share their experiences, and to advocate for the continuation and expansion of midwifery and related services in the province. Through the research process, it has become evident that midwifery must be understood as part of the struggle toward reproductive justice in this province. These reflections will direct further stages of the project, including ongoing research and dissemination.

Confronting myself

In this paper I illustrate how auto/biography, drawing on feminist research methodology, enabled me to chronicle and theorise the lived experience of class relations in the academy. I explain how auto-diegetic auto/biographical doctoral research has provided me with ‘both a mode of representation and a mode of reasoning’ (Richardson, 1997, p. 28) which was therapeutic, reflexive, as well as agentic to help me understand the sense of displacement in the academy and how I used my doctorate to redress that.