What it means to be a feminist researcher

Although claiming to be ‘objective’ and value-neutral, “science has often functioned in the disservice of marginalised groups, and feminists have been among the most vociferous critics” (Wigginton & Lafrance, 2019). Feminist research thus emerged as a voice that values women’s experiences, needs and perceptions of the social world, while at the same time challenging sexist conclusions that regarded men as the ‘norm’, and women, by default, regarded as either irrelevant for understanding the human experience, or deficient — a ‘problem’ (Kaur & Nagaich, 2019; Wigginton & Lafrance, 2019). Simone de Beauvoir (1953), captured this asymmetry between men and women:

Humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being. … For him she is sex — absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute — she is the Other (Simone De Beauvoir, 1953, pp. xviii, xxiii).

This demonstrates the struggles women have grappled with overtime, where they have been excluded from knowledge production, with men labelled as the knowers and custodians of knowledge while women are invalidated through the othering practices of patriarchy. However, as a Zimbabwean female researcher living in South Africa, my nationality has been more focal than my gender. For example, during my PhD field research, being a woman presented me as non-threatening to my research participants (mostly male) while my nationality evoked curiosity. Amongst the black small-scale farmers, this curiosity became appreciation and acceptance once they realised, I could speak their language. While for the white commercial farmers this curiosity turned from suspicion to relaxation and active participation as they felt I understood their plight around land reform.

Feminist researchers have expressed concern over the way social scientists have analysed women, men, and social life. According to Harding (1987: 2) feminist researchers:

Listen carefully to how women informants think about their lives, and critically to how traditionally social scientists conceptualise women’s and men’s lives. They observe behaviours of women and men that traditional social scientists have not thought significant. They seek examples of newly recognised patterns in historical data”.

Ollivier & Tremblay (2000) identify three defining principles of feminist research:

1. Feminist research is characterised by its double dimension– the construction of new knowledge and the production of social change.
2. Feminist research is grounded in feminist values and beliefs– it focuses on the realities faced by women; the meanings women give to the world and importantly the recognition that research must often be conducted within institutions that are still patriarchal.
3. Feminist research is characterised by its diversity- it is constantly evolving to capture women’s concerns from varying perspectives. It transcends disciplines (interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary) and uses different methodologies.

The work of feminist researchers challenges the assumptions of traditional epistemologies and methodologies of knowledge production (Wigginton & Lafrance, 2019). Feminist researchers disrupt traditional ways of knowing and proffer complex understandings and solutions to incorporating subjugated knowledge. Being a feminist researcher thus means being at loggerheads with the status quo, it means challenging and questioning traditional processes of knowledge production that have assumed man as “knowers” or agents of knowledge. It means gendering the process and proffering alternative theories of knowledge that legitimate women as knowers (Harding, 1987). According to Hesse-Bibe (2006, p. 2), being a feminist researcher means:

[providing] a legacy of feminist research, praxis, and activism … [unearthing] a consciousness that opens up intellectual and emotional spaces for all women to articulate their relations to one another and the wider society — spaces where the personal transforms into the political.

From a review of various literature, being a feminist researcher means bringing the lived experiences into the core of building knowledge and foment social change; confronting the knowledge claims of the ‘custodians’ of knowledge production who occupy positions of privilege. According to Hesse-Biber (2006) being a feminist researcher means confronting exclusion from the dominant avenues of knowledge building and invalidation by the dominant powers. It is about bringing what has been relegated to the margins into the mainstream, while eradicating boundaries that favour and protect the dominant/ hegemonic ways of knowledge production, boundaries that qualify and disqualify who can be a knower and what can be known (Hesse-Biber, 2006; Narotzky, 2006; Okech, 2018). Feminist research is obligated to contribute to social change through consciousness raising, advocating for legislative processes, specific policy recommendations, and gender mainstreaming to ensure contribution to the welfare of women and contribute to knowledge production (Reinharz & Davidman, 1992; Anderson, 2018).

Being a feminist researcher thus means confronting dominant knowledge production discourses to embrace difference. This can be done through the creation of different forums in which actors with disparate positionalities are brought together to motivate discussions and reflections on the different interpretations of knowledge.

My personal journey as a female researcher has more often than not taken the path of understanding and working with women whose lives are impacted by diverse social categories, their social class, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, race, sexuality etc. Intersectionality helps in understanding “how social identities can overlap and create compounding experiences of discrimination” (UN Women, 2020). As such, if feminism is about looking at how the world could be more inclusive, advancing towards the equality of men and women and affording them equal opportunities and rewards, then perhaps I am a feminist.

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About The Author

Charmaine has a PhD in Sociology from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and an MA in Development Studies, specialising in Rural Livelihoods and Global Change from Erasmus University, Netherlands. She was the Provincial Supervisor with the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) on the Zimbabwe Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment Project; where she was responsible for managing and providing support, and guidance to the Community Mobilisation Coordinators to develop and implement community mobilisation strategies. She also worked as a Research Supervisor with Mass Public Opinion; where she was responsible for designing questionnaires, conducting interviews, transcribing interviews, analysing data, reporting writing, and report presentations

Includovate is a feminist research incubator that “walks the talk”. Includovate is an Australian social enterprise consisting of a consulting firm and research incubator that designs solutions for gender equality and social inclusion. Its mission is to incubate transformative and inclusive solutions for measuring, studying, and changing discriminatory norms that lead to poverty, inequality, and injustice. To know more about us at Includovate, follow our social media: @includovate, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.

Reference

1. Harding, S. (1987). Feminism and Methodology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2. Hesse-Biber, S. (2006). Exploring, interrogating, and transforming the interconnections of epistemology, methodology, and method. Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis, 1–26.
3. Narotzky, S. (2006). The production of knowledge and the production of hegemony. World Anthropologies: Disciplinary Transformations within Systems of Power, 7, 133.
4. Okech, A. (2018). Cite African Feminists: Some readings. Medium. https://awino-okech.medium.com/.reading-list-bddc1e71f6fd
5. Ollivier, M., & Manon, T. (2000). Questionnements f�ministes et m�thodologie de la recherche. Montr�al et Paris: L’Harmattan.
6. Reinharz., S & Davidman., L. (1992) Feminist Methods in Social Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Simone De Beauvoir, H. (1953). The second sex. New York: Knopf.
8. Wigginton, B., & Lafrance, M. N. (2019). Learning critical feminist research: A brief introduction to feminist epistemologies and methodologies. Feminism & Psychology, 0959353519866058.
9. UN Women. (2020). Intersectional feminism: what it means and why it matters right now. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer-intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters