Feminist Research

Feminist Research

Essentially, feminist research can be defined as research on what is called “feminist” based on the encounter of women in a world largely dominated by men. The purpose of this study is to create useful knowledge that contributes to ideas from different perspectives. Feminism focuses on agents who share similar plans with men and overcome conflicts by gender, competence and class. This component was built in the 1980s. Since then, feminist research has focused on how men have physically changed women’s lives, and the development of strategies can counteract this process (Mary Maynard 2005). There is little consensus on feminist research on absolute terminology to accurately identify feminist theory and practice. So it is not really an isolated theory. Patricia McGuire (Bretton 1997) explains that feminism (i) includes the knowledge and belief that women are subject to some form of oppression (ii) the obligation to oppress and exploit women in any way. (Brettin 1997).

Feminism as a distinctive approach in social sciences

Arguably, feminism is a distinctive approach in social sciences based on the presence of unique feminist methodologists. Feminist methodologists refer to a specific and unique approach that is used in research by most feminist scholars (Naples 2017, p13). The feminist methodologies are more often used with the aim of capturing the exact experiences of women as well as other individuals who are frequently marginalized in scholarly research. Feminist methodologies comprises of an set of research approaches, strategies and methods that aims at offering a broad and clear vision specifically of research practice. Such kind of research topic targets being used in two main activities. First, this kind of research topic targets being used in studying a variety of topics ( Naples 2017, p14). More so, Naples(2017, p14) reveals that such kind of research topic can be used in exploring various aspects such as social structures and processes, analysis sites, daily life of the research participants as well as multiple scales.

The distinctiveness of feminism in social sciences manifests itself through the inclusion of the three main principles in feminism research by feminist methodologies. The principles effectively guide and direct the various feminist methodologies at conducting an extensive feminist research(Brayton et.al 2014, p9). The first principles of feminist methodologies are the aspect of double dimension. The principles hold in to that any feminist research has two sides, which are evident in its objectives. The first side is that a feminist research will have its objective as the construction of new knowledge. The second side is that feminist research has its other objective as the production and initiation of social change(Brayton et.al 2014, p9). The second principles within feminist research tend to focus on the aspect of values and beliefs. For this principle, feminist research needs to embrace and entirely apply pure feminist beliefs and values(Brayton et.al 2014, p9). The principle tends to embrace various aspects such as the inclusion of feminism within the feminist research methodology. More so, the principle will embrace majoring its focus in the various meanings that women offer to their unrecognized world. With the two above main aspects, the principle acknowledges the needs for regularly and frequently conducting research especially within the patriarchal institutions. The third principle of feminist methodologies advocates in the diversity of feminist research. With the principle being both trans-discipline and inter-discipline, it aims at using the various applicable feminist methodologies in ensuring the diversity of feminist research.

Besides, the uniqueness of feminism approach in social sciences associates to feminist research mainly focusing on addressing a set of unique issues that particularly relates to women.. Arguably, both the historical and modern feminist research strives at addressing a set of varying and diversifying issues. For instance, the historical feminist research aimed at addressing issues such as women struggles and the various forms of oppression that they were subjected to. Such was evident in the feminist research , which majored on informing on both the women struggles as well as the numerous forms of oppression that women were facing and were fighting against(Brayton et.al 2014, p12). On the other side, the modern feminist research tends to focus on a large and unique set of issues. According to Brayton et.al(2014, p13), the modern feminist research mainly focuses on issues such as women empowerment as well as traditional and modern marginalized women. The feminist research further focuses on addressing issues on women diversity , antiracism and leadership as well as gender based violence in workplace(Brayton et.al 2014, p15). As such, the modern feminist research seeks addressing a unique set of issues and aspects unlike the traditional research. Such constitutes to the uniqueness of feminism as an approach in social sciences for it intends at uncovering the various aspects in the society that undermines women capability and their equality.

More so, the distinctiveness of feminism approach in social sciences displays through feminism principles informing the all the stages of a feminism research. According to Brayton et.al (2014, p10), the earlier three mentioned feminism principles are mainly involved in informing the various stages of a feminism research. For instance, these feminism principles informs on the choice topic of any feminism research. Another example is where the feminism principles inform the collection, presentation and analyzing of data within the feminism research(Brayton et.al, 2014 p15). Through informing on these and other stages of a feminism research, the feminism principles acts as an effective framework for guiding and directing in the decision making process and in particular , the decision made by the various research participants. These are some of the very unique activities of feminism approach in social sciences, when compared to other forms and types of approaches. For instance, the psychological approach in social sciences tends to inform on aspects such as the behavioral relationship between the participants and the respective research. On the other, the linguistics approach tends to analyze the participants communication within the respective research. The legal approach tends to analyze whether the various activities of a research hid to the laid ethical considerations, and especially when focusing on the participant’s involvement. The legal approach tends on whether the various research activities override ethical issues such as privacy of the participants.

Methodologically, feminist studies differ from traditional studies. They actively seek to close the gap between research and content. It has the political motivation to change social inequality; And it starts with women’s perspectives and experience. Feminist researchers have access to a wide range of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Instead of focusing on the most relevant research, the context and purpose of the research determines the choice of research tools and methods. There is no single method or technique for feminist research. Methodological decisions must be decided instead of believing that a particular situation or situation is appropriate for each situation and situation (Greaves et al., 1995, p. 334).