In the rest of the chapter, feminist methods are described in five sec­tions: on two early sciolisms, on Sandra Harding’s trivium, on Liz Stanley’s contribution, and on male hysteria. There were two sciolisms in the early days. two early sciolisms A sciolism is a superficial pretension to knowledge, a sciolist is some­one who produces such […]

There are four intertwined issues here: (1) where a research team had gathered data on both sexes; (2) did they publish all these data?; (3) how authors set about describing male and female subjects in their texts; and (4) which results they highlighted in their publications, and which of their respondents they believed and therefore […]

In the early days of feminist sociology (1968 to 1980) the main focus of writing on methods was intensely practical. Women pointed out that researchers had posed their research questions in a sexist way; that empirical studies had sampled from the population in a sexist way; that they had used research instruments that were grounded […]

the question(s) of method(s) T he title of this chapter comes from a passage in which Kate Fansler describes how in academic life one is either ‘happily unorganised’, or ‘One kept up with it, organising the necessary work in a provocative way, one wanted to get it done’ (Cross, 1981: 119). Kate Fansler was referring […]

There are commentators, mostly but not entirely men, who attribute to feminism as a social and ideological movement, and therefore partly to feminist sociologists, an enormous negative influence. Contemporary Sociology, the ASA’s journal of book reviews and review essays, carried five essays on the state of the discipline in the May 1999 issue, with the […]