4. Quoting, Counting and Other Interesting Stuff

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about qualitative and quantitative methods within feminist research, focusing in particular on: (i) feminists’ longstanding interest in the qualitative interview as a research tool which is both less exploitative and less limiting than traditional positivist methods; (ii) the common idea that feminist researchers dislike quantitative methods, particularly Oakley’s paradigm war thesis, and critiques of this; (iii) the importance of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods, and the use of primary and secondary sources; (iv) the idea of participatory research, which avoids exploitation by including respondents in decisions, and approaches to achieving this.

Course

In this course, Professor Gayle Letherby (University of Plymouth) explores ideas and methods associated with feminist social research. In the first lecture, we consider feminist critiques of traditional sociological research. In the second lecture, we look at the ways in which feminist scholars incorporate gender and other differences into their research. In the third lecture, we think about issues of emotion and sensitivity in the research process. Next, we turn to feminist engagements with qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In the fifth lecture, we consider feminist approaches to epistemology. In the sixth and final lecture, we consider ideas of objectivity and subjectivity, and the place of politics and values in the research process.

Lecturer

Professor Gayle Letherby is Honorary Professor of Sociology at the University of Plymouth. Her areas of interest include social research methods, particularly feminist methodologies, and the sociology of the family. She is co-author of Introduction to Gender: Social Science Perspectives (2014) and Objectivity and Subjectivity in Social Research (2013), and author of Feminist Research in Theory and Practice (2003).