Difficulty of Men Conducting Feminist Research

In McDowell’s article, “Doing Gender”, she outlined the fears of every graduate student, especially those of us who study outside of the norm. She describes students in the geography department not studying feminist issue due to the perception that studying those issues will not lead to academic advance. I, as a man studying women’s studies, fear the same thing and believe McDowell did a disservice by only addressing women studying feminism in her article. I was practically shocked when she stated in describing qualitative research popular in women’s studies that, “it is often argued that qualitative, small scale, and case study work is ideally suited to women studying women” (406). I realize she is critiquing the assumptions made about female feminist scholars but the entire tone of her article seems to ensure that gender studies become “female ghettos” which she states needs to be addressed (403).  

           

Scott in “Evidence of Experience” reminds us of the difficulty of studying the other. She reminds us that experience affects our research. In other words, my experience as a man will always affect any feminist project I undertake. I need to be careful in my work to ensure that I am not only studying women in terms of their oppression but I also need to look at the privilege of men which my experience will be both helpful and a hindrance.  

           

Miraftab in “Can you Belly Dance”, shows us that the research subject can be an equal partner in our research and we should engage them as such. We need to pay particular attention to the power imbalance inherent in the research relationship and if I am to study women I need to be particularly careful.

           

As a man in the women’s studies field I will have to be careful at all times to ensure I use feminist research methods at all times and do not let my male privilege affect my research. Even though this research will be quite difficult it will be both personally and intellectually rewarding.

Work Cited:

McDowell, L. (1992). Doing gender: feminism, feminists, and research methods in human geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers New Series, 17(4), 399-416.

Scott, J. (1991). The evidence of experience. Critical Inquiry, 17(4), 773-797.

Miraftab, F. (2004). Can you belly dance? methodological questions in the era of transnational feminist research. Gender, Place and Culture, 11(4), 595-604.