Feminist Methodologies

Feminism is a perspective not a research method, meaning there are multiple ways to approach the study of women (Reinharz, 1992). However, a central goal of feminist empiricism, standpoint epistemology, and post-modernism methodologies is that women's lives are important and must understand women from their perspective and in context (O’Donnell, 1985, in Reinharz, 1992). Feminist methodologies all share a dedication to move the focus from the masculine perspective to incorporating both men and women to advance knowledge (DeVault, 1996). Therefore, it is research about women but also for women. It aims to identify various intelligences, the different ways of knowing, and to give a say to the silent voices (DeVault, 1996). Feminist methodologies have opened society’s eyes to a new and innovative way of carrying out research, and have influenced other fields and the way research is formulated. It has also challenged societal norms by questioning patriarchy and traditional notions.

Feminist methodologies are not a dominant research approach (Kirkman, 2011). A lack of orthodoxy means there is no single definition of feminism; therefore there is no one objective method in carrying out social research (Kirkman, 2011). This is shown in criminology, where a number of feminist critiques outline the criminal victimisation of women (Morris, 1987; Gelsthorpe and Morris, 1988, in Walters & Bradley, 2005). The different approaches of feminist research are based on the fact that people deviate depending on political or ideological orientation. Some advocate interpretive methods like qualitative analysis, others maintain the mainstream positivist approach of quantitative methods, while some unite the two (Reinharz, 1992). However, all feminist ...

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