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Loyola University Chicago Libraries

WSGS 402: Foundations of Women's Studies

Welcome

Welcome! This guide will introduce you to library resources and services that will assist you as you complete the research paper assignment.

Contact me at amather@luc.edu for research help, book requests, or library service questions. I'm here to help you succeed in your research, and am happy to meet with you to discuss your work and recommend:

Resources

Feminist Research Practice

The fully revised and updated edition of Feminist Research Practice: A Primer draws on the expertise of a stellar group of interdisciplinary scholars who cover cutting-edge research methods and explore research questions related to the complex and diverse issues that deeply impact women's lives. This text offers a unique hands-on approach to research by featuring engaging and relevant exercises as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses of feminist researchers at work. The in-depth examples cover the range of research questions that feminists engage with, including issues of gender inequality, violence against women, body image issues, and the discrimination of other marginalized groups. Written in a clear, concise manner that invites students to explore and practice a wide range of research, the Second Edition offers seven new chapters that reflect the latest scholarship in the field, a stronger focus on ethics, new examples that bring concepts to life, effective learning tools, and more.

Feminist Measures in Survey Research

How can multiracial feminism inform social science survey research? What would it mean, in practical terms, to bring an "intersectional" approach to survey design and statistical analysis? How might such an approach change our understanding of the social world? Feminist Measures in Survey Research offers a new approach for bridging feminist theory and quantitative social science research. Catherine E. Harnois demonstrates how a multiracial feminist perspective can inform virtually every aspect of the research process, from survey design and statistical modeling to the frameworks used to interpret the results. Harnois argues for an interdisciplinary approach to social research, rooted in multiracial feminist theorizing. Such an approach, she suggests, enables a critical reexamination of the assumptions embedded in everyday research practices. It also provides a new and important framework for critiquing and producing quality survey research. Catherine E. Harnois was honored with the 2012 Distinguished Article Award from the American Sociological Association. This award recognizes scholars who have made a distinguished and significant contribution to the development of the integrative field of race, gender, and class through the publication of a journal article or book chapter on the "cutting edge" of sociological inquiry.

Feminist Methodology

`An accessible, clearly explained review of difficult concepts within this arena as well as relevant debates. Its strengths are in outlining possible considerations that need to be taken into account when making methodological choices. It also clearly explains how these choices impact knowledge production. This book would undoubtedly be of considerable use to anyone seeking to understand and get to grips with feminist methodological issues′ - Feminism and Psychology Who would be a feminist now? Contemporary ′political realism′ suggests that the essentials of the battle have already been won, and the current generation of women entering University is used to seeing feminism presented as ′old fashioned′, ′extreme′ and ′unrealistic′. Challenging such assumptions, this important new book argues for the value of empirical investigations of gendered life, and brings together the theoretical, political and practical aspects of feminist methodology. Feminist Methodology - demonstrates how feminist approaches to methodology engage with debates in western philosophy to raise critical questions about knowledge production - shows that feminist methodology has a distinctive place in social research - guides the reader through the terrain of feminist methodology and clarifies how feminists can claim knowledge of gendered social existence - connects abstract issues of theory with issues in fieldwork practice. This timely and accessible book will be an essential resource for students in women′s studies, gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, social anthropology and feminist psychology.

Handbook of Feminist Research

The topic feminist research has too often been neglected in standard research methods books. The Handbook of Feminist Research represents the establishment of a new tradition or paradigm in viewing how the research process is implemented. Feminist researchers bring unique epistemological and methodological perspectives to the research process. Feminists′ approach to methodology allows for `new′ types of questions about women′s lives and those of `other/ed′ marginalized groups to be addressed within their respective fields of research. This Handbook stresses the interconnections between epistemology, methodology and methods.They are not de-linked from each other but work together in dynamic ways to produce new knowledge and this openness itself is also characteristic of how feminist researchers approach their work. Feminists engage synergistically with all three aspects of the research process - epistemology, methodology and method. Through a synergistic connection between these elements of research: epistemology; methodology; and method, we find that feminist research often shapes new research endeavors that are greater than `the sum of their parts′. In other words, while traditional research employs these components of research, the synergistic engagement of these components in feminist research questions the status quo, aiming to raise our consciousness about how we do research. Looking at the selections provided in this Handbook we are able to look at feminist research, its implementation of synergistic use of epistemology, methodology and method, and the resulting qualities of feminist research in practice.

Gender and Qualitative Methods

`The book will be of particular value to those wishing to understand and review the importance of gender within their research studies. It provides a clear and critical view of some of the social theories concerning gender, society and experience′ - Nurse Researcher Gender and Qualitative Methods outlines the practical and philosophical issues of gender in qualitative research. Taking a social constructionist approach to gender, the authors emphasize that the task of the researcher is to investigate how gender/s is/are defined, negotiated and performed by people themselves within specific situations and locations. Each chapter begins with an introduction to a specific method and/or research subject and then goes on to discuss gender as an analytical category in relation to it. Areas covered include: field work; life story; membership categorisation analysis; and analysis of gender in sound and vision. Written in a clear and accessible way, each chapter contains practical exercises that will teach the student methods to observe and analyze the effects of gender in various texts and contexts. The book is also packed with examples taken from women and men′s studies as well as from feminist and other gender studies.