Assess the view that feminist research requires its own specific methodology

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Assess the view that feminist research requires its own specific methodology

Feminists believe that society is malestream and is patriarchal and they strive for equality for women. Female researchers criticise sociologists for using malestream methodologies therefore neglecting the experiences of women and only concentrating on issues that are of interests to males. They argue that the conventional positivist research mirrors the hierarchy that is present in our society as the researcher has the questions to ask so they have the power and the participant is their subject, therefore they generally reject traditional positivist-quantitative methodology. Feminist view traditional methodologies as patriarchal as feminists Firestone (1970) and Millett (1970) suggest that up until the 1970s, the dominance of theoretical and methodological perspectives like Functionalism and Positivism assumed that sexual identities were biological and fixed. Feminists however, argue that sexual identity is socially constructed and that previous research had been conducted under the 'male gaze', in which methodology was very much associated with 'patriarchal practice'. Harding (1987) identifies three key elements and in one of them new purposes of social science for women she says that feminist research is committed and is open about its commitment which is known as the female