Pre-Feminist and Feminist
Methodologies
"The overt ideological goal of
feminist research in the human
sciences is to correct both the
invisibility and distortion of
female experience" (Lather,
1988, p. 571)
“-isms”
“-isms” can be personal or institutional
Racism
Heterosexism
Ageism
Sexism
Personal = prejudicial or discriminatory behavior
toward individuals or groups
Institutional = build into the structure of the social
organization so that the system perpetuates
discriminatory treatment of individuals or groups
Gender as an Institution
– Process of creating distinguishable social
statuses
– We rank these statuses unequally
(stratification)
– We build social structures based on these
unequal statuses (eg. Status of housewife
leads to organizing society in a certain way)
“-isms”
“-isms” can be consciously or unconsciously
perpetrated
Explicit “-isms” = conscious and intentional
discrimination
Implicit “-isms” = unconscious and unintentional
discrimination
Sexism and Culture
Cultural knowledge and beliefs shape
Perceptions
Focus and Priorities
Assumptions
Blind spots
Institutions and traditions
Patriarchy & the Research Process
• Assumption that what goes for men goes for women
• Assumption that what men do is what is interesting and
central and what women do is trivial and peripheral to
society
• Assumption that gender roles in modern industrialized
society are natural and universal
• Assumption that gender stratification is natural and
universal
Patriarchy & the Research Process
Predominance of males in academia
Defining what should be researched
Designing research projects
Collecting data
Analyzing and Interpreting data
Patriarchy & the Research Process
Example through Ethnography
C.W.M. Hart (1928-1929)
Arnold R. Piling (1953-1954)
The Tiwi of North Australia
vs
Jane Goodale (1954, 1962, 1980-1981, 1986-1987)
Tiwi Wives
Patriarchy & the Research Process
Example through Evolutionary Analysis:
1968
Richard B. Lee
Irven Devore
Man the Hunter
Vs
1981
Frances Dahlberg
Woman the Gatherer
The Feminist Approach
Four stages of feminism
1. Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Suffrage and Temperance
2. Early 1960’s into the late 1980’s
Recognition of and reaction to a sexist power
structure in Western society.
3. Early 1990’s to present
Recognition of differences in women’s experiences
due to ethnicity and diversification of perspectives
4. Contemporary Post Feminism
Reaction against earlier stages and assertion that
feminism is no longer necessary.
The Feminist Focus
Patriarchial beliefs, traditions and institutions
Gender politics, power relations, and sexuality
The promotion of women's rights and interests
Discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression
Feminist Methods
• Beginning with the standpoints and experiences of women
• Focusing on women and gender in research design
• Actively seeks to remove the power imbalance between
research and subject (researcher as expert vs informant as
expert)
• Politically motivated with a major goal of changing social
inequality by empowering women
• Focusing on qualitative methods and data to describe women’s
experiences and positions
• Challenging patriarchial assumptions and logic about the nature
of society and gender relations
Example: Redefining Basics
Matriarchy = The word matriarchy is coined as the opposite of patriarchy. Most
modern anthropologists and sociologists assert that there are no known
examples of human matriarchies from any point in history, and Encyclopedia
Britannica describes their views as "consensus", listing matriarchy as a
“hypothetical” social system. The Britannica article goes on to note, "The
view of matriarchy as constituting a stage of cultural development is now
generally discredited. Furthermore, the consensus among modern
anthropologists and sociologists is that a strictly matriarchal society never
existed.”
Patriarchy = A society where women are dominated by men. S. Walby (1990)
has distinguished six locations of patriarchal relations: sexuality, the
household, male-on-female violence, paid employment, cultural institutions,
and the state.
2002
Peggy Sanday
Woman Centered: Life in a Modern Matriarchy
Matriarchy = A system based on cultural symbols
and practices associating the maternal with the
origin and center of the growth processes
necessary for social and individual life.