3.2 SOCIOLINGUISTICS
3.2.15 Feminist research
The manipulating of lyrics also became powerful as a form of political protest because of its indirect approach (Mohr, 1989:69). Another example of word play and symbolism in lyrics is found in the music of Bayete (Mohr, 1989:73). The Bayete group’s African rhythm was a fusion of jazz harmony and improvisation, as well as the use of subversive language to voice protest in the 1980s. The lyrics of their song Hypocrite allude to the Hippo police, a nickname for the South African Police (SAP), and a word-play on hippo implies that they are hipocrites (Mohr, 1989:79). Hippo also referred to the huge and strange-looking vehicle which was used in the 70s and 80s, to ferry the large numbers of protesting youth to the various South African jails, where they were imprisoned. The Hippo was capable of going into the townships, irrespective of the fact that the streets were barigated in order to frustrate and prevent police access.
Moreover, feminists have also criticised traditional quantitative research in which people are transformed into ‘object-like subjects’ (Unger, 1983) cited in Wambui (2013:1), with the interests and concerns of research participants completely subordinated to those of the researcher (Campbell & Schram, 1995). In such research, participants’ voices, particularly of women, are subdued, silenced or severely circumscribed by the powerful voice of the researcher, and their experience may be occluded, ironicised, invalidated or even obliterated (Woolgar, 1983).
Methodologically, feminist research differs from traditional research, and actively seeks to remove the power imbalance between research and subject, due to the fact that it is politically motivated, endeavours to alter social inequality and it begins with the standpoints and experiences of women (Oakley, 1998). This implies that, in feminist research, respect for the experience and perspective of the other is upheld, with many feminist researchers expressing commitment to ‘realizing as fully as possible women’s voices in data gathering and preparing an account that transmits those voices’ (Olesen, 1994: 167). Furthermore, feminist research is characterized by ‘non-hierarchical relations’ between the researcher and the participants.
Thus feminist researchers employ a wide range of methods, both qualitative and quantitative (Brayton, 1997).
It is important to note that feminist research does not claim to speak for all women, but generates knowledge grounded on the realities of women's experiences, in the social world (Olesen, 1994). In feminist research, the researcher participates in a social system, rather than remaining detached from it. Feminist research typically relies on interviews to complement observations, as well as to gain a more comprehensive perspective of the subject under study (DeWalt & Dewalt, 2002; Vanderstoep & Johnson 2009). Accordingly, feminist researchers emphasise the significance of qualitative data, and of working with women in their natural enviroment (Bartky, 1995). Owing to the fact that ‘A feminist approach attempts to give a voice to women, and to redress the male-oriented perspective that has predominated in the development of social sciences’, feminist researchers believe that there are ‘many routes to knowledge, and emphasise the importance of experience in understanding women’s realities’
(Neuman, 2000:82).
Jonker and Pennik (2012:31) describe methodology as ‘a certain route the researcher takes in order to achieve a certain result, which include knowledge, insight, design, intervention, and solutions. Neuman (2000:82 affirms that,
Feminist methodology is particularly concerned with how, or whether, knowledge produced about social life can be connected with the social realities of women in the context of any methodology that is dominated by men, and that neglects consideration of the gendered nature of social life, as well as the atrocity suffered by women, irrespective of colour, race, class, level of education, and so on.
Therefore, feminist methodology takes into consideration the fact that through employing traditional methods, ‘the writing of social reality is grounded in language that reflects male power, the male perspective, and male control of the definitions of the world’ (Ehrlich, 1995:45). This implies that through traditional methods, women employ language that is not their own to articulate their reality and experiences (De Vault, 1990; Anderson, 1988).
Listening to women articulate their realities and experiences, the researcher should be heedful of how women reflect upon their experiences, feelings and meanings, which are discerned through the manner in which they employ language (Anderson, 1988).
The term ‘feminist methodology’ is also sometimes used to describe an ideal approach to doing research, one which is respectful of respondents and acknowledges the subjective involvement of the researcher (Letherby, 2003). Oakley (1993) concurs that qualitative methods are more appropriate for feminist research as they are best suited for articulating women’s experiences, and adequately address their needs by allowing subjective knowledge.
Harding (1987) argues that the question as to whether there is a feminist method has been deliberated, and the general consensus of feminist scholars is that feminist research should be not just on women, but for women and, where possible, with women (Fonow & Cook, 1991). Consequently, feminist research is expected to adopt critical perspectives toward
dominant intellectual traditions that have in the past ignored and/or justified women’s oppression (Acker et al., 1983). Feminist research is seen as being concerned with issues of broader social change and social justice and committed to changing the condition of women (Acker et al., 1983; Fonow & Cook, 1991). Accordingly, feminist researchers promote participatory research where the relationship between researcher and the researched is non- hierarchical, non-authoritarian, non-exploitative and non-manipulative (Oakley, 1981).
Qualitative research and Qualitative Feminist Methods
Qualitative research is described as a form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people elucidate and make sense of their experiences, as well as the world in which they live (Holloway, 1997). It refers to a study process that investigates a problem where the researcher conducts the study in a natural setting and builds a complex analysis by way of rich description and explanation, as well as a careful examination of data (Creswell, 1998).
Although there are different approaches within the wider framework of qualitative research, most of these have the same aim of understanding the social reality of individuals, groups and cultures.
It is possible to conduct feminist qualitative research using a range of research methods, which include, ‘interviews, focus groups and conversational analysis, diaries, letters, documents and texts; questionnaires, statistics, Content Analysis; Oral History, Ethnography, Discourse Analysis and-participant and non-participant observation’ (Jayaratne 1983:145).
Jayaratne (1983:145) notes that semi- and unstructured interviews are methods widely used in feminist research as they are claimed to ‘convey a deeper feeling for or more emotional closeness to the persons studied’ (Jayaratne 1983:145). Feminist researchers make every effort to conduct interviews in a way that does not further oppress the participant (Oakley, 1981). They attempt to actively involve the participant in the research process as much as possible, and reject the use of the word ‘subject’ that implies the participant is an insensate object to be experimented on, and observed like an animal confined in a zoo (Oakley, 1981).
Focus Groups
Feminist qualitative researchers are often drawn to focus group methods because they are particularly useful in offering two key features often suggested as essential in feminist research (Krueger, 2002). Focus groups are a contextual method which does not focus on the individual devoid of social context, or separate from interactions with others. Not only are focus groups a relatively non-hierarchical method which shifts the balance of power away from the researcher, towards the research participants, but they also have the potential to help women to collectively change their consciousness by fostering collective identities and solidarities (Morgan, 1997). Montell (1999:54) concurs that focus group interviews ‘facilitate such connections (collective identities and solidarities), because they can go beyond uncovering already existing meanings produced by already constituted subjectivities’. In this way, participants gain access to new information, new ways of thinking, to the sense that they have the right to speak and the authority to act, that is, they have a sense of emancipation (Goss & Leinbach 1996; Morgan, 1997).