Author
Abstract
The foundation of feminist methodology is a critique of both natural and social sciences as being andocentric. The feminists believe that research
questions, concepts, theories, methodologies and knowledge claims, which are supposed to be value – free/ gender – free, have produced a distorted
and injustice understanding of both nature and social life. It is argued that the orthodox social science has omitted, or at its best sense, underestimated
the women experiences taken place in their social world. Then, by the second half of twentieth century, feminism, whether as a critique, theoretical
perspective based on critical paradigm, or as an independent paradigm emerged in contemporary social sciences, has raised a number of serious
questions to challenge the basic principles and assumptions of traditional consensus-positivist paradigm. Accordingly, it has proposed its own
alternative ontology, epistemology and methodology. Feminist perspective emphasizes that the knowledge is essentially local, situational, contextual
and historical rather than universal and meta- contextual entity. This Paper aims to explore the paradigmatic foundations and critical debates in feminist
research. In doing so, beginning first with a brief review on general perspective of feminism and its historical trend, it addresses the subapproaches
of feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint and feminist postmodernism. Then, it focuses on the paradigmatic foundations of feminism including that of ontology, epistemology and methodology respectively. The final part of paper deals with the feminist methodology, methodological critiques against positivist research and the principles and procedures of feminist research methods.
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