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Feminist

In: English and Literature

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FEMINIST METHODOLOGIES AND EPISTEMOLOGY
ANDREA DOUCET
Carleton University, Canada

NATASHA S. MAUTHNER
University of Aberdeen, Scotland

O

ver the past 10 years of teaching courses on research methods and feminist approaches to methodologies and epistemologies, a recurring question from our students concerns the distinctiveness of feminist approaches to methods, methodologies, and epistemologies. This key question is posed in different ways: Is there a specifically feminist method? Are there feminist methodologies and epistemologies, or simply feminist approaches to these? Given diversity and debates in feminist theory, how can there be a consensus on what constitutes “feminist” methodologies and epistemologies? Answers to these questions are far from straightforward given the continually evolving nature of feminist reflections on the methodological and epistemological dimensions and dilemmas of research. This chapter on feminist methodologies and epistemologies attempts to address these questions by tracing historical developments in this area, by considering what may be unique about feminist epistemologies and feminist methodologies, by reviewing some of sociology’s key contributions to this area of scholarship and by highlighting some key emergent trends. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the theoretical and historical development of feminist epistemologies, followed by a similar overview of feminist methodologies. The final section discusses how feminist
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epistemologies and feminist methodologies have begun to merge into an area called feminist research and details some key pillars of contemporary and emergent work in this area.

FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGIES
Twenty-five years ago, Lorraine Code, a Canadian feminist philosopher, posed what she called an “outrageous

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