Feminist Epistemology & CSS

Question 1

List the major feminist critiques of “Malestream” research, and who says it (5)

Answer 1

Abbott et al-

1. Research is done only into male lives
2. Male samples are generalized to a female population
3. Female concerns are seen as unimportant
4. Alpha bias: women are exaggerated, stereotyped and distorted
5. Beta bias: women are “added on” to a research without much effort into actually assessing

Question 2

Exemplify how male samples/ only male things are researched

Answer 2

Carol Smart – discussed sociological studies of crime and how they only looked into male criminal lives and results were generalized to a mixed population

Question 3

A major female concern that isn’t researched (or wasnt?)

Answer 3

Ann Oakley- housework

Question 4

Examples of bias

Answer 4

Talcott Parsons– exaggerates gender differences and uses biological differences and stereotypes to explain female behaviour.

Question 5

Differentiate “masculine” and “feminine” research methodology

Answer 5

Masculine - objective, unindulging, emphasis on replicability, detatched, hierarchal

F- collaborative, quantitative, helping,

(said & stressed by both Oakley and Devault)

Question 6

Problems with “Feminist Methodology”?

Answer 6

Pawson - lmao it’s just unstructured interviews with a fancy name

Question 7

Describe just how WILD oakley’s interviews were

Answer 7

She did 178 interviews of women, expecting or at different stages of pregnancy, and the interviews were all upwards of 9hrs each, and they all became good friends and had fun

Question 8

What IS the “feminist standpoint epistemology”?

Answer 8

• • The ontology that patriarchy and oppression are real.
• • The epistemology that the experiences of women are the truth

Can cite- Sanley & Wise

Question 9

Problems with this CSS-ish approach?

Answer 9

Pawson:
“you force the values of the researcher onto the respondent by preassuming they are oppressed”
“you only obtain knowledge about what u assume is oppression from the oppressed, when the oppressor’s experiences are also useful”

Question 10

Lee Harvey

Answer 10

-main Critical Social Science

1. The problem is that, owing to ever present beliefs of the people entrenched in society, oppression can be very difficult to see.
2. The duity of the sociologist to use their values to uncover oppression and to seek social transformation

Question 11

Explain deconstruction

Answer 11

First, a given structure is “deconstructed” to its different strctures, and the similarity or guiding principle of these structures suggest a true essence.

(EG: Capitalist society: labour markets, consumer-oriented education, etc, etc— their underlying essence is the Commodity Form)

Then, this essence is used to examine and understand all other structures in society.

(Commodity Form, for example, may explain why new religions are popping up and being subscribed to)

Question 12

Hammersley’s problems w/ CSS

Answer 12

1. Multiple forms of oppression exist. Many people may at once be the oppressed and the oppressor, and CSS can’t differentiate it properly.
2. “What constitutes oppression” - is a subjective judgment– not every single need and desire of every group can be achieved in society
3. the assumption that an IDEOLOGY is causing oppression is false, bc people might still seek to oppress/oppression even if they are conscious of it.
4. CSS might only give false consciousness, and even that may not be good enough for social change. (So what if an oppressed group learns they are oppressed?)