The issue of the use and existence of feminist research methodologies has been extensively argued elsewhere (see Harding 1987; Fonowand Cook, 1991; Mies 1991; Reinharz, 1992). It has been argued that the issue of 'feminist research' , as well as feminist method and methodology,does not exist. Such deliberations point out that each research places itself as feminist. The placing comes from the way research indicates the areas it wishes to attain in terms of goals: the purpose of the research has to be the women (Harding, 1997). These arguments go further to observe research through the way power is allocated within research. In addition, research becomes feminist if it has a
relationship to a political commitment and emancipation (Burman, 1991).
An additional view contests that research places itself as feminist only if it centres gender as the framework of operation (Lather, 1991). Giving opportunity to the researcher's experiences to be located in the research is also considered a feminist thought (Harding, 1997). To be more specific, there are three elements that qualify a study to be properly feminist. Research thus defined is that which allows and makes use of women's lived experiences, has women as the purpose of doing the research and incorporates and makes use of the experiences of the researcher. These three elements assist in engaging feminist methodologies (ibid). The same opinions are echoed through the notion that the researcher should be the 'overt subject matter'. The idea is to place the.researcher'sideas in such a manner that they become fused and engrossed throughout the study (Jayaratne
& Steward 1991). Research employs the participants in an array of question asking activities and questions around what comprises feminist research have been raised. In earlier work, Harding differentiated research by use of'method' as a procedure of data gathering, 'methodology' as theory and analysis of research deed and 'epistemology' as what constitutes knowledge in terms of who owns they type of knowledge that is being studied (Harding, 1987). In agreement with Harding, Skeggs later pointed out that 'Ontology' refers to what is knowable, 'Epistemology is how we know what we know and what is the relationship between the researcher and the researched and 'methodology is about how we get to know (Skeggs, 1994a). The combination of the two therefore suggests the feminist approach as being interested in who, the what, and the how of research.
In addition to this basis, the identification of research as feminist is a dedication to a specific feminist epistemology. Feminist research therefore observes the use of a theoretical and political analysis, in such a manner as to question dominant ideas about ways of knowledge making. The ideas also ask questions around the implications of gender in the centre of knowledge.This undertaking to declare the relation between being and knowing, 'between ontology and epistemology' works to identify and characterise what feminist research is like (Harding, 1987; Stanley 1988 and Burman, 1991). How the
Karabo Mokobocho-MohlakoanaChapter Five:Methodological Considerations
relationship between the knower and the known has been negotiated becomes pertinent to feminist research, as such, the methodology that covers how we come to know what we know is of prime importance (Skeggs, 1994). These three elements also help us define or confirm the feminist nature of any study.
In addition to these views,the following guidelines for research to be considered feminist have been highlighted. The ability of the research to reduce the gap that has always existed between researchers and researched is a feminist thought. The aim is to allow both researched and researcher to experience each other's worlds. In feminist terms, women should assume the status of'subject' rather than 'object' in the study. There is a further vote for the type of research whose main role and intent is to emancipate and set free. It should be research that sets the minds of people to be instrumental in changing their unwanted situations (Mies, 1997). An addition to this view observes that the research should also aim at changing the oppressive structures (Lather, 1988). This invitation that research should capsize the boat of authority and power is a further question of feminist ideology.
Feminist researchers as qualitative researchers use different ways and approaches to their research. There is an observation that good feminist research has to make use of women's resources in conducting research. The notion of feminist research, as highlighted above, points out to the variations that exist within different issues of methodology. But the main focus in them all is the drive to value experience as data. This outlook carries concerns about whose experience matters within a particular study (Burman, 1991). The way to know data as influenced and determined by experience determines the directions that a feminist study should take. It is in this manner that the voice of the poor and discriminated against people of the world receives opportunities to make meaning of their lives. Through receiving the opportunity to question the existing power relations. In this study of young women's pregnancy discourses, I draw heavily from the above guiding principles as I move and interact with data,methods, participants and also myself.