Table Of ContentResearching Women's Lives
from a Feminist Perspective
Feminist Perspectives
on The Past and Present
Advisory Editorial Board
Lisa Adkins, University of The West of England, UK
Harriet Bradley, University of Sunderland, UK
Barbara Caine, University of Sydney, Australia
Sara Delamont, University of Wales College of Cardiff, UK
Mary Evans, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Gabriele Griffin, Nene College, UK
Jalna Hanmer, University of Bradford, UK
Maggie Humm, University of East London, UK
Sue Lees, University of North London, UK
Diana Leonard, University of London, UK
Terry Lovell, University of Warwick, UK
Maureen McNeil, University of Birmingham, UK
Ann Phoenix, University of London, UK
Caroline Ramazanoglu, University of London, UK
Sue Scott, University of Stirling, UK
Janet Silt an en, University of Edinburgh, UK
Dale Spender, Australia
Penny Summerfield, University of Lancaster, UK
Martha Vicinus, University of Michigan, USA
Claire Wallace, University of Lancaster, UK
Christine Zmroczek, Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, UK
Researching Women's Lives
from a Feminist Perspective
Edited by
Mary Maynard and June Purvis
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UK Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
USA Taylor & Francis Inc., 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
© Selection and editorial material copyright Mary Maynard and
June Purvis 1994
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
permission in writing from the Publisher.
First published 1994. Reprinted 1995, 2000, 200 I, 2002
Transferred to Digital Printing 2005
Taylor & Francis is an imprint afthe Taylor & Francis Group
A Catalogue Record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN 0 7484 0152 0
ISBN 074840153 9 (pbk)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available on
request
Typeset in 10112pt Times
by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd., Hong Kong
Contents
Introduction Doing Feminist Research 1
Mary Maynard and June Purvis
Chapter 1 Methods, Practice and Epistemology: The Debate
about Feminism and Research 10
Mary Maynard
Chapter 2 Researching Women's Lives or Studying Women's
Oppression? Reflections on What Constitutes
Feminist Research 27
Liz Kelly, Sheila Burton and Linda Regan
Chapter 3 Practising Feminist Research: The Intersection of
Gender and 'Race' in the Research Process 49
Ann Phoenix
Chapter 4 Situating the Production of Feminist Ethnography 72
Beverley Skeggs
Chapter 5 Dancing with Denial: Researching Women and
Questioning Men 93
Elizabeth A. Stanko
Chapter 6 Sensuous Sapphires: A Study of the Social
Construction of Black Female Sexuality 106
Annecka Marshall
Chapter 7 Coming to Conclusions: Power and Interpretation
in Researching Young Women's Sexuality 125
Janet Holland and Caroline Ramazanoglu
Chapter 8 The Work of Knowledge and the Knowledge of
Women's Work 149
Miriam Glucksmann
Chapter 9 Doing Feminist Women's History: Researching the
Lives of Women in the Suffragette Movement in
Edwardian England 166
June Purvis
Bibliography 190
Notes on Contributors 209
Index 212
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Introduction
Doing Feminist Research
Mary Maynard and June Purvis
Why this Book?
In 1981, Helen Roberts published her influential text Doing Feminist Re
search (reprinted in 1988). The appearance of this book was significant for a
number of reasons. At a time when feminism was still treated with open
hostility and ridicule in the academy, it indicated that feminist work comprised
a serious intellectual pursuit, with important insights to contribute to our
understanding of the social world. It helped to open up debate as to how
taking account of women and adopting a feminist perspective affects the
research process. Further, the book, which was based on the personal accounts
of a number of people involved in research, argued that the problems which
emerged from these accounts were themselves methodologically important.
The various authors demonstrated that research is not a linear process, as is
often implied in the polished descriptions published from completed studies.
Instead, a focus on autobiographical analyses of what it is actually like to do
research can provide a useful insight into issues often hidden in conventional
methodology textbooks.
In the intervening period, discussions about the nature of feminist meth
odology and feminist research have become both more acceptable and more
complex. As Maynard describes in the first chapter of this volume, debate no
longer concentrates solely on the question as to which research techniques
should be employed and how they should be implemented, although these
are still important concerns. Feminists are now involved in exploring a whole
range of wider issues concerned with practical, political and ethical matters
in undertaking research. There is also a burgeoning literature on epistemo
logy, which is concerned with the nature and status of feminist knowledge.
Despite the high profile now given to discussing feminist research, how
ever, much of the material published, with a few notable exceptions, tends to
focus on the principles involved in a rather abstract way.1 This can sometimes
be at the expense of exploring the dynamics of actually doing research in the
field. Although individual researchers are increasingly drawing attention to
the difficulties and contradictions arising in their own specific work, there is
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Mary Maynard and June Purvis
little material which addresses these in a readily accessible and comprehen
sive way. As Kelly, Burton and Regan point out in chapter 2 of this book,
Feminists have been stern critics of 'hygienic research'; the censoring
out of the mess, confusion and complexity of doing research, so that
the accounts bear little or no relation to the real events. But many
of our accounts are full of silences too. (p. 46)
It is the intention of this book explicitly to address the 'silences' referred to,
which is why we have invited a number of well-known feminist researchers
to write about the process of conducting their research, warts and all. Sub
stantive areas of focus have been chosen for their significance in feminist
thinking during the last decade, although, of course, it is impossible to be
exhaustive about this. In addition to a concern with issues such as sexual
violence, femininity, employment, sexuality and political activity in the past,
contributors also pay attention to the impact of 'race', class, lesbianism and
disability. Each chapter provides a reflexive account of the research process,
offering the insights of the insider as to how it proceeds, its difficulties and
compensations. In doing so, it becomes apparent that the debates and argu
ments are far more complicated than they were fifteen or so years ago. No
longer can it be argued that there is a 'right' way of doing things and there
is no clear consensus as to what feminist research definitionally might com
prise. Rather, what does emerge from the pages of this volume is a sense of
the parameters within which feminists feel they, minimally, must operate, in
order to be rigorous about, and maintain integrity towards, their work. This,
together with continual reflection on the research process itself, contributes
to the rich and dynamic discussions which emerge when we consider what is
meant by 'doing feminist research'.
Themes and Controversies
Although the various contributors to this volume have focused their chapters
in differing ways, there are important emphases which unite them. The chap
ter by Kelly, Burton and Regan, for example, which draws on their work on
domestic violence and child sexual abuse, raises a series of general questions
about feminist methods, methodology and epistemology which are also the
concern of Maynard. Skt:ggs' account of conducting an ethnographic study
with working-class young women, over an extensive period of time, focuses
more specifically on the practicalities of dar-to-day research, thus comple
menting similar discussions by Glucksmann, by Holland and Ramazanoglu
and by Phoenix. Marshall's angry critique of the racism of academic life, and
discussion of her strategies for fighting and coping with this, parallel Stanko's
analysis of how she is continually 'dancing with denial' in the face of crim
inology's failure to take feminist work on male violence seriously. Marshall,
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Doing Feminist Research
together with Holland and Ramazanoglu, ground their accounts of doing
research in work which has focused on the meanings of sexuality. Similarly,
both Glucksmann and Purvis adopt historical approaches, reflecting respec
tively on the merits of oral history in understanding women's experiences of
employment and of using diaries and letters as personal texts when studying
the political activity of the suffragettes.
In addition to such common ground, however, a number of other themes
also emerge from the pages of this book. These foreground issues to do with
power, politics and responsibility in the research process. Four of these themes,
identified as being crucial to understanding the concerns of feminists cur
rently engaged in research, are discussed below under the headings: mixing
methods; the impact of involvement in research; validity in feminist know
ledge; and politics and academe.
Mixing Methods
In chapter 1, Maynard draws attention to the orthodoxy which seems to have
become something of a feature of discussions on feminist research methods.
A gulf has been drawn between quantitative and qualitative approaches, with
the implication that it is qualitative work, particularly the semi-structured or
unstructured interview, which is quintessentially feminist. Maynard takes
issue with such a stance, as do Kelly, Burton and Regan. In chapter 2, the latter
authors question the assumptions that implicitly underpin such a position and
discuss how they have used the survey method and self-report questionnaires
in their work on child sexual abuse.
This dissatisfaction with the idea that feminist research must involve
interviews appears in a number of other chapters in this book. Instead, the
view is put forward, on a number of occasions, that not only should the
method adopted be that most appropriate to a specific set of research ques
tions and the overall research context, but it is frequently useful to select
a range of methods, with a view to maximizing input to the research.
Glucksmann, for instance, refers to her approach as being 'multi-sourced'
(p. 158). For one project, in addition to working with women on an assembly
line, she also interviewed supervisors and managers, examined company
archives and trades union journals, as well as consulting census data and
other official statistics. Marshall's analysis of the social construction of Black
female sexuality has involved combining an anonymous questionnaire with
semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Skeggs, who argues that ethno
graphy is not a method but a theory of the research process, used interviews,
questionnaires, participant observation, statistical analysis, historical docu
mentation etc. in ways which were all part of a more general framework
relating research practice to the theories that underpinned her research.
In putting forward an argument for multiple methods, feminists are not
suggesting, in some naive fashion, that combining approaches will ensure the
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