Feminist Theory and Survey Research

Over the past three decades, feminist methodologists have hammered home one point with surprising regularity: Feminist research takes a variety of legitimate forms; there is no “distinctive feminist method of research” (Harding, 1987; see also Chafetz, 2004a, 2004b; Fonow & Cook, 2005; Hawkesworth, 2006; Hesse-Biber, 2007; Risman, Sprague, & Howard, 1993; and Sprague, 2005). And yet, to this day, the relationship between feminist theory and quantitative social science research remains uneasy. Among feminist scholars, quantitative research is often seen as suspect for its association with positivism and its pretense of objectivity (among other things). At the same time, among quantitative researchers, feminist-identified work is often dismissed as “biased,” “activist,” or “substantively marginal.” While a number of scholars have recently published works outlining a “feminist” approach to social science research, these books have generally steered clear of quantitative survey research. Some authors of feminist