The Politics of Location: Doing Feminist Research at “Home”∗

∗This research was assisted by awards from the Social Science Research Council through funding provided by the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Science Foundation (SES-9103501). The author thanks Susan Hanson for her comments, and Glen Elder and Patricia Meoño-Picado for comments on an earlier version of the paper.

Feminist research methodologies have many advantages over more traditional positivist methodologies. Feminist research is differentiated from nonfeminist research in terms of its critiques of universality and objectivity and its emancipatory purpose. Drawing on my own research on the survival strategies of low-waged women workers in Worcester, Massachusetts, I argue that we need to examine more critically our feminist research methods in terms of the unequal power relationships on which the research process necessarily rests.

Key Words:

• qualitative research methodologies
• feminist research methodologies

Notes

∗This research was assisted by awards from the Social Science Research Council through funding provided by the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Science Foundation (SES-9103501). The author thanks Susan Hanson for her comments, and Glen Elder and Patricia Meoño-Picado for comments on an earlier version of the paper.