Feminist scholars and those inspired by other liberatory movements have raised profound questions about the standard practices of social research. This book includes a collection of essays that examine the dimensions of feminist research. It explores the sources and meanings of feminist methodology, and the strategies of reflexive analysis.

Committed to a feminism attentive to oppressions that operate simultaneously with gender, DeVault considers exclusions and distortions in feminist research and strategies for building more inclusive approaches. Including a closing essay that presents "practical advice" for oppositional researchers, "Liberating Method" reflects DeVault's conviction that feminist insights can and should contribute to a sounder, more rigorous social science. Author note: Marjorie L. DeVault is author of the feminist classic "Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work." She is Associate Professor of Sociology and a member of the Women's Studies Program at Syracuse University.

Acknowledgments
Part I: Introduction
1. Becoming a Feminist Scholar: A Second-Generation Story
Part II: What Is Feminist Methodology?
2. Talking Back to Sociology: Distinctive Contributions of Feminist Methodology
3. Institutional Ethnography: A Strategy for Feminist Inquiry
Part III: Excavation
4. Talking and Listening from Women's Standpoint: Feminist Strategies for Interviewing and Analysis
5. Ethnicity and Expertise: Racial-Ethnic Knowledge in Sociological Research
Part IV: The Self as Resource
6. Novel Readings: The Social Organization of Interpretation
7. Whose Science of Food and Health? Narratives of Profession and Activism from Public Health Nutrition
Part V: Writing and Rhetorical Strategy
8. Women Write Sociology: Rhetorical Strategies
9. Metaphors of Silence and Voice in Feminist Thought (with Chrys Ingraham)
10. Speaking Up, Carefully: Authorship and Authority in Feminist Writing
Part VI: Craft Knowledge of Feminist Research
11. From the Seminar Room: Practical Advice for Researchers
Appendix A
Appendix B
Notes
References
Index
List of Data for Sources in Chapter 6
Commentary on The Late Bourgeois World
Readings for a Seminar on "Feminist Methodologies"