The Debates and Unresolved Issues Surrounding Feminist Research and its Distinction from Mainstream Research

Joanne Ardovini-Brooker, Ph.D

ARDOVINI-BROOKER, WINTER 2001

It is believed that feminism grants voices to those who have been silenced. If we are to finally hear the plethora of silenced voices, then we must listen to their perspectives.

Introduction

There are many questions surrounding feminism. Since the Women's Movement of the 1960's, there has been an ongoing debate concerning the inclusion of women in leadership roles as well as the role of women in research. The most frequently asked questions concerning women's roles in research, which parallel those of women's leadership roles and styles, are: Is feminist research typically distinct from other more mainstream research within the Social Sciences? And are there specific feminist methods? There has been a long-standing debate addressing such questions. If one believes that feminist research is research about women, by women, and for women, then one may conclude that there are distinct methods that feminists use to study the oppression of women. Also, if one believes, as does Liz Stanley (1993), that there is a direct relationship between feminist consciousness and feminism, then there is research that is distinctly feminist. However, one could argue that no matter what the political ideologies of the researcher, the research methods remain the same.

In trying to answer the above posed questions, we need to examine not only political ideologies as suggested by Stanley. We also need to examine the goals of research, the assumptions made by the researcher, the methods utilized by the researcher, the methodology, and epistemology that lay the foundation for research. All these criteria will assist us in making clear distinctions between feminist research and mainstream research. Yet, we must keep in mind that many researchers, including feminist researchers, continue to struggle with the very issues presented in this paper, which remain unresolved. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to grant the reader with an overview of the debates and unresolved issues surrounding feminist research.

The Goals of Research

Let us begin exploring the debate of whether there is a distinct feminist research by looking at the goals of research. If there is a distinction between feminist research and mainstream research, then we would find differences among their goals. The goal of mainstream research is to uncover human experiences and to understand human behavior. The goal of feminist research is to uncover and remove the blinders that obscure knowledge and observations concerning human experiences and behaviors that have traditionally been silenced by mainstream research. In this light, many researchers agree with Stanley's views concerning the direct relationship between feminist consciousness, feminism, and research, as well as leadership styles. Nevertheless, they do not do so without reservations.

It is believed that feminism grants voices to those who have been silenced. If we are to finally hear the plethora of silenced voices, then we must listen to their perspectives. We must to listen to the perspectives of the oppressed by mainstream research and leadership roles. To truly understand their experiences we must listen to their words, their language, and their meanings. Who better to know these things than the "insiders" themselves? Women have a "less distorted view" of reality "rather than merely a different view" or a one-sided, male-centered view, which is most often represented in mainstream research (England, 1993, p. 18). "Those on the margin, i.e. women, have a privileged access to reality" and are better able to describe domination and inequality (England, 1993, p. 18). However, one cannot take this stand without a concern for the issue of privileging. By privileging women's perspectives, is feminist research doing what feminism is accusing mainstream, androcentric research of doing? "Which margin" is relevant? If we are to listen to those who have been marginalized due to class, sex, race, or homophobia in order to gain a less distorted form of knowledge, then are the voices of poor, lesbian, women of color the most privileged standpoint? These are concerns that have not been resolved within the debate concerning feminist research. However, what is resolved is that there is a clear distinction between the goals of feminist research and mainstream research.

Assumptions of Feminist Research

As feminist research differs from mainstream research in its goal, it also differs in its assumptions concerning research. In studying the issues surrounding feminist research, I have found a consistency among the assumptions made by feminist researchers in their approach to their research. This consistency is found within the basic assumptions made by the researcher. Basically, for research to be considered feminist in nature, it must address issues concerning the oppression of women and children. As noted, feminist research must grant voice to those being studied. Judith Cook (1983) in her examination of feminist research also found consistencies among the assumptions made by these researchers. Cook concluded that no matter what the discipline, feminist research displays four major assumptions that may be viewed as a critique of mainstream research. The first assumption of feminist research is that there is a pervasive lack of information about women's worlds. Second, there is a bias in the underrepresentation of women researchers. Third, there is a need to reconceptualize previously investigated phenomena to include women's experiences. Fourth, the kind of research questions that are asked have crucial implications both for the results obtained and for practical action (Cook, 1983, p. 127).

Feminist Research Methods: Definitions and Debates

Let us now look at the issue of whether or not there are distinct feminist research methods, "Are there specific feminist methods?" To do so, we must examine a handful of varying definitions of feminist methods. When referring to research methods, I am referring to the tools that one utilizes to collect data. I begin our survey of definitions with the work of Reinharz. She offers three definitions of feminist research methods. First, Reinharz states that feminist research methods are "methods used in research projects by people who identify themselves as feminists or as part of the women's movement" (Reinharz, 1992, p. 6). Secondly, feminist research methods are "methods used in research published in journals that publish only feminist research, or in books that identify themselves as such" (Reinharz, 1992, p. 6). The last definition of feminist research methods offered by Reinharz is that these are "methods used in research that have received awards from organizations that give awards to people who do feminist research" (Reinharz, 1992, p. 6). Essentially, methods are "feminist" if the researcher identifies herself, or is identified by others, as feminist.

It is also believed that what makes feminist research "feminist" is the method used by the researcher. Therefore, it is often concluded that there are certain research methods that are original forms of feminist research methods. Such methods include: consciousness-raising, creating group diaries, drama, genealogy and network tracing, the nonauthoritative research voice or multiple-person stream-of-consciousness narrative, conversation, using intuition or writing associatively, identification, studying unplanned personal experiences, structured conceptualization, photography or the taking-pictures technique, and speaking freely into a tape recorder or answering long, essay-type questionnaires (Reinharz, 1992, pp. 214-238). However, these methods are viewed as being associated with qualitative research methods and not solely feminist research methods.

Qualitative approaches to research include methods that ascribe to "the assumption that the researcher first observes and investigates and then describes the setting or group of people or events being researched" (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 6). A qualitative researcher assumes that the descriptions that she/he offers in her/his study are reflections or representations of a reality captured within the study itself. The researcher "is an active presence, an agent, in research, and she constructs what is actually a viewpoint, a point of view that is both a construction or version and is consequently and necessarily partial in its understandings" (Stanley & Wise, 1993, pp. 6-7). The quantitative approaches to research places the researcher in a knowledge hierarchy above those being researched. It is also believed (Stanley & Wise, 1993) that the quantitative approaches have foundationalist origins:

they rest on an epistemological position which sees a single unseamed reality existing "out there" which the special expertise of science can investigate and explain as it "really" is, independent of observer-effects...assuming that "research knowledge" gathered in one set of circumstances can be applied unproblematically in others which are seen as to all intents and purposes "the same": other classrooms, or families, or workplaces, and so forth. (p. 6)

With this as a foundation to research, feminist research must "acknowledge the ethical and political issues involved in what we do, how we do it and the claims we make for it", if we are to undertake a quantitative approach to research (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 7).

Other feminist researchers, such as Liz Kelly, Sheila Burton, and Linda Regan, define feminist methods as methods that derive from feminism itself (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 46). "This suggests that what makes research 'feminist' is not the methods as such, but the framework within which they are located, and the particular ways in which they are deployed" (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 46). Therefore, feminists can utilize many techniques of research, as long as the methods support feminist ideologies. A feminist researcher is not restricted to using only qualitative methods of research. She/he may participate in both qualitative and quantitative methods of research. I concur with this thinking because it is not the methods that make the research feminist in nature. It is the subject matter that is being addressed, the question asked by the researchers, as well as the methodological assumptions upon which the research is built that makes the research feminist in nature. There is no affinity between feminism and a particular research method. Feminist researchers can use a range of methods, as they can use a range of leadership styles.

I concur with Kelly, Burton, and Regan. Feminist research is more then the study of the oppression of women, it is the search for answers to questions that have been previously ignored by mainstream research. Therefore, an array of methods maybe utilized. However, there are certain aspects that are distinctive of feminist research methods. Reflexivity on the process of doing research, locating oneself within, both question and topic, subjectivity, and granting voice, are all commonalties; yet there is no distinct feminist method of research (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 46).

With all this said, the answer to the question, "Are there specific feminist methods?" is no. It has been made evident that many feminists, including myself, do not believe that there are distinct feminist techniques for gathering evidence. "Feminists have used all existing methods and have invented some new ones as well" (Reinharz, 1992, p. 4). However, the tools for collecting data remain relatively the same. It is the approach, the epistemological assumptions and research methodology, to research itself that differs from mainstream methodology and places it within the realm of feminist research. In other words, it is the epistemology and methodology not the methods that makes feminist research distinctly feminist. As Harding states, "it is difficult to find a satisfactory answer to the questions about a distinctive feminist method" because discussions of method and methodology have been "intertwined with each other and with epistemological issues...in both the mainstream and feminist discourses" (Harding, 1987, p. 2).

With this noted, feminist research methods can range from questionnaires to oral histories. The recognition of the plurality that exists within feminist research methods is important. I say this because this plurality of methods is a reflection of basic epistemological assumptions of feminist research, which contradict the epistemological assumptions of mainstream research. The feminist epistemological assumption, of which I speak, is the recognition of multiple voices. There is not just a woman's perspective. There are many women's perspectives. Mainstream research has silenced these voices and devalued their experiences. These epistemological assumptions are based on the feminist desire for something different from that which already existed, dominates, and oppresses women; that is mainstream ways of knowing and doing research. Mainstream research has not and does not represent the experiences of women.

The Intertwining Nature of Methodology, Methods, and Epistemology

This leads us to other questions within the debate concerning feminist research, "Is there distinct feminist research that can be found within the Social Sciences?" and "Is there a distinct feminist methodology?" Here, we are concerned with "theory and analysis of how research should proceed". These aspects of research are connected to feminist epistemology, which challenges issues of adequate theory of knowledge or justificatory strategy, which challenge mainstream theory and methods (Harding, 1987, p. 2). With this said, the answer to these questions is yes. As noted earlier, I would argue that there is a distinct feminist methodology. I would also argue that feminist methodology is based on distinct epistemological assumptions that differ from mainstream methodology. A main feminist epistemological assumption is that "rather than there being a 'woman's way of knowing,' or a 'feminist way of doing research,' there are women's ways of knowing" (Reinharz, 1992, p. 4 citing Belenky, et al, 1986). "The ways of knowing that women have cultivated and learned to value, ways we have come to believe are powerful but have been neglected and denigrated by the dominant intellectual ethos of our time" (Reinharz, 1992, p. preface). Therefore, women have different ways of knowing and understanding reality. In turn, research concerning women must be approached differently.

Women, as researchers and those whom are being researched, must also overcome a multitude of obstacles to develop the power of their minds and the product of the research (the construction of reality). Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarul have grouped women's perspectives into five major epistemological categories (Belenky, et al 1986, p. 15). The first group is made up of those who have been silenced by the mainstream methodology. This group includes women who are forced into a position in which they experience themselves as mindless and voiceless and subject to the whims of external, mainstream forms of authority, i.e. approaches to research. The second group includes women as receivers of knowledge. This is a perspective from which women conceive of themselves as capable of receiving, even reproducing, knowledge from the all-knowing external authorities but not capable of creating knowledge on their own. The subjective knowledge group is the third group. This includes a perspective where truth and knowledge are conceived of as personal, private, and subjectively known or intuited. The fourth group is the procedural knowledge group. Here women are in positions that are invested in learning and applying objective procedures for obtaining and communicating knowledge. The fifth and final group is the constructed knowledge group. In this group women are in positions that view all knowledge as contextual. Women experience themselves as creators of knowledge, and value both subjective and objective strategies for knowing (Belenky, et al 1986, p. 15)

Feminist epistemology proposes alternative theories of knowledge that legitimate women as knowers. This is done by avoiding the "add women and stir" ideology of mainstream research, which begins its analyses only in men's experiences. Examples of male dominance in the creation of knowledge may be found in a wide range of theories, e.g. theories of leadership and theories of crime. As Chesney-Lind believes, mainstream theories suffer from the "Westside Story Syndrome". According to Chesney-Lind, this androcentric focus of research may be explained by Margaret Mead's observation (Chesney-Lind, 1988): that whatever men do, even if it is dressing dolls for religious ceremonies, has higher status and is more highly rewarded than whatever women do...For this reason, field studies focus on male activities and attributes wherever possible: to study them is to convey higher status to the researcher (p. 26). Therefore, feminist research is based on the epistemological assumption that women's experiences provide the new resources for research (Harding, 1987, p. 7). This "fault line", as Dorothy Smith refers to the fragmentation of women's identities, offers rich sources of insight from which feminist research generates (Harding, 1987, pp. 7-8). The goal of this research is to provide explanations, for women, of social phenomena that affect their lives so that they can understand themselves and our gendered world better. "In the best feminist research, the purpose of research and analysis are not separable from the origins of research problems" (Harding, 1987, p. 8). Therefore, the personal is very much political. For example, Dorothy Smith and Nancy Hartsock "note that all research is done from a particular standpoint or location in the social system" (Andersen, 1994, p. 372). For women, this location is one of the oppressed groups.

Smith continues to the debate by stating, "research and theory must situate social actors within their everyday worlds", unless research begins within the ordinary facts of lives, then the knowledge constructed will be "both alienating and apart from the actual experiences of human actors" (Andersen, 1994, p. 372). The objective here is to establish the relationship between social structure and everyday life. This relationship is especially important in comprehending women's experiences. This is due to the fact that the affairs of everyday life are the specific area of women's expertise. "Given the gender division of labor, women are charged with maintaining everyday life. To overlook that fact or to treat it as insignificant is to deny women's reality" (Andersen, 1994, p. 373 citing Reinharz, 1983 & Smith, 1987).

Feminist Standpoint Theory

The fact that women are charged with maintaining everyday life is the basis for feminist standpoint theory. Within research, standpoint feminists believe that the problem is deeper than "bad science" or "poor research methods". The problem is that the dominant conceptual schemes of research fit the experiences of Western, white, elite class males (Harding, 1991, p. 48). The specific social location of the knower is important to research because it shapes what is known and what is not known. Standpoint feminists believe that not all perspectives are equally valid, complete, discovered, or even heard by the use of mainstream research methods. Therefore, it is essential for feminist research to begin from women's lives, "then we can arrive at empirically and theoretically more adequate descriptions" (Harding, 1991, p. 48). Harding states, "women's specific location in patriarchal societies is actually a resource in the construction of new knowledge" (Andersen, 1994, p. 373 citing Harding, 1991). "Reflecting long-standing feminist criticisms of the absence of women from or marginalized reports of women in research accounts, research done from the perspective of standpoint theories stresses a particular view that builds on and from women's experiences (Olsen, 1994, pp. 162-163 citing Harding, 1987, p. 184)."

Standpoint theory assumes that systems of privilege are least visible to those who benefit the most and who control the resources that define the dominant cultural beliefs, i.e.: whites, males, heterosexuals, etc. Standpoint feminists believe that it takes the standpoint of the oppressed groups, i.e. people of color, women, and homosexuals, to recognize systems of oppression and privilege. However, this standpoint is not accepted blindly. "Systems of oppression also shape the consciousness of the oppressed" (Andersen, 1994, p. 373). Therefore, standpoint feminists must construct knowledge that reflects the experiences of both the dominant and subordinate groups in order for that knowledge to spawn liberation.

Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, and Sandra Harding, as well as Hilary Rose, Jane Flax, and Alison Jaggar all assisted in the development of standpoint themes that originated from Hegel's insight into the relationship between the master and the slave (Harding, 1991, pp. 121- 131). The themes also originated in the insight of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's development of the "proletarian standpoint" (Harding, 1991, p. 120). These standpoint researchers/theorists focus on differences between men and women's situations. There are many differences, which are the grounds for standpoint feminists to make their claims. According to Harding, there are seven basic assumptions concerning the differences between men and women's experiences. The seven differences are summarized and the authors who discussed these differences are below:

1. Women's different lives have been erroneously devalued and neglected as starting points for scientific research and as the generators of evidence for or against knowledge claims (e.g. Jane Flax, 1989; Sara Ruddick, 1989; Carol Gilligan, 1982; and Mary Belenky, 1986).

2. Women are valuable "strangers", "outsiders" to the social order...women's exclusion from the design and direction of both the social order and the production of knowledge...this status is seen as an advantage (e.g. Patricia Hill Collins, 1991).

3. Women's oppression gives them fewer interests in ignorance...this is grounds for transvaluing women's differences because members of oppressed groups have fewer interests in maintaining the status quo.

4. Women's perspectives are from the other side of the "battle of the sexes" that women and men engage in on a daily basis...human knowers are active agents in their learning and women's knowledge emerges through the struggles.

5. Women's perspectives are from everyday life, which is best for the origins of research (e.g. Dorothy Smith, 1987).

6. Women's perspectives come from mediating ideological dualisms, nature versus culture, which enables us to understand how and why social and cultural phenomena have taken form (e.g. Nancy Hartsock, 1987).

7. Women, especially women researchers, are "outsiders within"...this increases objectivity (e.g. Patricia Hill Collins, 1991) (Harding, 1991, pp. 121- 131).

The works of Smith and Hartsock exemplify feminist standpoint research, that is research that starts from women's actual experience in everyday life and ends with the stimulation of thoughts, doubts and questions concerning mainstream research (Olsen, 1994, p. 163). Both Smith and Hartsock illustrate this challenge of mainstream research by examining the researcher's place "in the relations of ruling" within the research process (Olsen, 1994, p. 163). They stress the importance of intersubjectivity in research as well as the problematic nature of the everyday world. Women's experiences are shaped by external material factors (Olsen, 1994, p. 163). Therefore, upon studying the experiences of women within this world a researcher must not view it as an object for study dividing subject and object as mainstreamly done. Instead, a researcher must "be able to work very differently than she is able to with established sociological strategies of thinking and inquiry that are not outside the relations of ruling" (Olsen, 1994, p. 163 citing Smith, 1992, p. 96).

Feminist Empiricism

Harding also discusses two other types of feminist epistemologies: feminist empiricism and feminist postmodernism. Basically, feminist empiricism attempts to bring the feminist criticisms of scientific claims into the existing theories of scientific knowledge (Harding, 1991, p. 48). Feminist empiricists believe that sexist and androcentric ways of knowing result from "bad science". Feminist empiricists work within the standards of the current norms of research, however; their research "proceeds on the assumptions of intersubjectivity and commonly created meanings and the realities between researcher and participant" (Olsen, 1994, p. 163). Scholars working within this genre do not reject mainstream research per se, but try to do it better. Feminist empiricism undercuts mainstream assumptions of research by recognizing that bias is introduced by the very nature of the context of discovery (Danner & Landis, 1990, p. 107). Similarly, they recognize the social identity of the research, i.e.: race, ethnicity, class, and gender, as relevant to the validity of the knowledge produced by the research process. "Acknowledging the subjective stance of the researcher at once increases the objectivity of the research and decreases the objectivism which hides this kind of evidence from the public" (Danner & Landis, 1990, p. 107 citing Harding, 1987, p. 9).

Feminist Postmodernism

Feminist postmoderns, on the other hand, believe that feminist empiricists and "standpointers" are not radical enough. It is believed that these two approaches still adhere to the "damaging Enlightenment beliefs about the ability to produce one true story about reality that is out there and ready to be reflected in the mirror of our minds (Harding, 1991, p. 48). Postmodern feminist researchers regard truth as "a destructive illusion" and view the world as "endless stories or texts, many of which sustain the integration of power and oppression and actually constitute us as subjects in a determinant order" (Olsen, 1994, p. 164). With such a foundation, the focus in postmodern feminist research is narrative. The distinction between text and reality where gender is no longer privileged, as seen in standpoint feminist research, is important to this "new" ethnography offered by postmodern feminists. This "new" ethnography is more than just "writing it up"; it lets the people we are studying "speak for themselves" (Olsen, 1994, p. 164).

There are three types of inquiry of interest to postmodern feminists. First, there is an interest in the social construction of realities. In other words, postmodern feminists examine such artifacts as video, film, music, and the body in order to understand "the production, distribution, consumption and exchange of cultural objects and their meanings" (Olsen, 1994, p. 164 citing Denzin, 1992, p. 80). Second, is "the textual analysis of these cultural objects, their meanings, and the practices that surround them" (Olsen, 1994, p. 164 citing Denzin, 1992, p. 81). Third, postmodern feminists study the impact of these culturally constructed meanings. They study the "lived cultures and experiences, which are shaped by the cultural meanings that circulate in everyday life" (Olsen 1994, p. 164 citing Denzin, 1992, p. 81). As Patricia Ticineto Clough states, "the textuality never refers to a text", as in mainstream research, "but to the processes of desire elicited and repressed, projected and introjected in the activity of reading and writing", of experiencing culture (Olsen, 1994, p. 164 citing Clough, 1993, p. 175).

Postmodern feminist research rejects the oedipal logic of realist narrativity (Clough, 1998, p. xiii). Feminist critics of mainstream research refer to "the narrative of the heroic scientists, the researcher who goes out in search of truth, struggling to get there, stay there, and return from there with a truly objective story of the world" as the oedipal logic of realist narrativity (Clough, 1998, p. xiii). Framing research in such a manner grants a form of subject-identity that privileges masculinity and serves to authorize cultural constructions of reality (Clough, 1998, p. xiii). Thus, rather than maintain the same male-dominated focus of mainstream research, feminist research focuses on "the problem of discursive authority at the level of literary practices-at the level of a political unconscious, which the narrative logic of Western, modern discourse puts into play" and on "the way narrativity elicits the participation of readers and writers in the practices of dominant forms of knowledge, thereby showing how a male-dominated production of knowledge is linked to modern practices of reading and writing - practices of meaning construction generally" (Clough, 1994, p. 3). This focus on discursive authority may seem too narrow. Postmodern feminist researchers have urged feminist researchers to extend their focus to include the assumptions and methodological orientations of research.

Stanley and Wise reject Harding's conception of the empiricist and postmodern epistemologies. They believe that it is around the constitution of feminist epistemology that feminist methodology develops, research methods can be conducted, and where feminism can directly challenge non-feminist frameworks (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 189). They believe that to conduct proper feminist research, the methods must derive from the methodology, which derives from feminist epistemology. The researcher/researched relationship must not be hierarchical in nature and emotions must be viewed as an aspect of the research process. The researcher must also be critical of objective versus subjective binaries, focusing on the processes by which understanding and conclusions are reached. This is achieved through the researchers' frank presentation of the existence and management of different realities held by both the researcher and the researched. The feminist researcher should also examine the issues of power in research and try to dispel any and all unequal distributions of power, including the written representations of the research findings (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 189).

Feminist Research and Mainstream Research: The Basic Differences

The origins of feminist research ultimately derive from feminist ontology or what they refer to as feminist fractured foundationalist epistemology (Stanley & Wise, 1993, pp. 8, 192). Feminist research differs from mainstream research in that it locates the feminist researcher on the same critical plane as those on which she and/or he is researching. This is similar to feminist leadership styles, in that it is much more transformational, cooperative. Both men and women can do feminist research. However, many feminist researchers, including myself, believe that nothing is separate from social life and experiences, nor does it exist outside the social (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 192). We also believe that men and women experience the social world differently, in turn, experience research and leadership differently. Therefore, feminist research methods must reflect feminist ontology, epistemology, and methodology which are developed from the experiences of women, then the question is, can men conduct feminist research? This is yet another issue that is still unresolved within the debate concerning feminist research and is a topic for another article.

Another way feminist research differs from mainstream research is that the feminist researcher makes sense of the world and produces generalized knowledge-claims on the basis of experiences (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 8). Feminist researchers also treat knowledge as situated because they make the assumption that particular structures are defined as facts external to and constraining upon people. In addition, feminist researchers are aware of the varying degrees of oppression in relation to a woman's social location and in relation to men, thus necessitating "prising apart the category men and women's experiences of different men in different times, places and circumstances" (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 8).

Feminist research differs from mainstream research in that it rejects using research to colonize material differences among women. This is done by presenting a social constructionist and non-essentialist notion of "the self" (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 8). Many feminist researchers believe that there is a social reality, "one which members of society construct as having objective existence above and beyond competing constructions and interpretations of it" (Stanley & Wise, 1993, p. 9). It also recognizes that social life is composed of discussions, debates and controversies concerning objectivity reality.

A major distinction of feminist research from mainstream research is "the questions we have asked, the ways we locate ourselves within our questions, and the purpose of our work" (Maynard & Purvis, 1995 citing Kelly, 1988, p. 6). Feminist researchers begin this quest with the rejection of hierarchical relationships. By doing this, feminist research becomes a means of sharing information.

As noted earlier, feminist research is characterized by a concern to record the subjective experiences of doing research (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 16). In other words, the researcher herself becomes a subject matter in the research. She must take into account her personal experiences as part of the research process. This differs from the objective stance that mainstream research usually takes.

A final way in which feminist research differs from mainstream research is "its insistence on its political nature and potential to bring about change in women's lives" (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 16). Ergo, feminism is both theory and practice. It is a framework that informs women's lives. "Its purpose is to understand women's oppression in order that we might end it" (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 28). This, I believe, is what it means to do feminist research. It also means becoming part of the process of discovery and understanding. It is a responsibility to attempt to create and initiate social change. We must, as feminist researchers, see feminist research as praxis. Through our research we create useful knowledge in order to "make a difference" and inform activism (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 28).

In summary, we have seen that conducting feminist research means different things to different people. Yet, what remains constant is the foundation of the research, the epistemological assumptions. Whether the methods utilized are qualitative or quantitative, feminist research addresses issues that have not been addressed by mainstream research. Therefore, I conclude that feminist research does differ from mainstream research because it "reflects the dynamic and cumulative process of consciousness-raising, combining personal and social change in a continuing and reflective process" (Maynard & Purvis, 1995, p. 28). Feminist research, no matter what the methods, attempts to answer the questions that have previously been ignored by research. As women's roles in leadership and styles have offered us yet another perspective, feminist research offers us yet another view of the social. These "new" perspectives grant us insight into the world, one that includes women.

References

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Dr. Joanne Ardovini-Brooker is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Ardovini-Brooker can be reached via e-mail at: soc_jab@