The paper examines how qualitative feminist research can inform the study of engendered practices in organizational settings. It reviews current debates about feminist research, including Oakley’s (1998, 2000) critique of the ways in which qualitative methods and data are used by feminists. The work of Skeggs (2001) on feminist principles for undertaking qualitative research is also examined. The paper then considers two pieces of research on work and engendered organizations that used mixed methods and data. Finally the paper considers some of the methodological challenges faced by the author in two recent qualitative projects about manager-academics. Using qualitative data, it is argued, does not necessarily restrict the wider policy applicability of the project findings. However, working in teams with those not committed to feminist research can present other challenges, which may also throw light on the phenomena being researched.
Acker, S. (1994) ‘Is Research by a Feminist Always Feminist Research?’ pp. 55-74 in S. Acker , (ed.) Gendered Education. Buckingham, Open University Press .
2.
Alvesson, M. and Y. Due Billing , (1997) Understanding Gender and Organizations. London & Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
3.
Bett Report (1999) Independent Review of Higher Education, Pay and Conditions. London: HMSO .
4.
Blackmore, J. (1999) Troubling Women: Feminism, Leadership and Educational Change. Buckingham: Open University Press .
5.
Bowles, G. and R. Duelli Klein (1984) Theories of Women’s Studies. London: Routledge .
6.
Brannen, J. (1992) Mixing Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Aldershot: Avebury .
7.
Bryman, A. (1988) Quantity and Quality in Social Research. London: Unwin Hyman .
8.
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge .
9.
Butler, J. (1993) Bodies that Matter. London: Routledge .
10.
Clarke, J. and J. Newman (1997) The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare. London: Sage .
11.
Collinson, D.L. and J. Hearn , (eds) (1996) Men as Managers, Managers as Men. London: Sage .
12.
Deem, R. (1998) ‘New Managerialism in Higher Education — the Management of Performances and Cultures in Universities’ , International Studies in the Sociology of Education8(1): 47-70 .
13.
Deem, R. and J. Ozga (1997) ‘Women Managing for Diversity in a Post Modern World’, pp. 25-40 in C. Marshall , (ed.) Feminist Critical Policy Analysis: A Perspective from Post Secondary Education. London and New York: Falmer .
14.
Devine, F. and S.J. Heath (1999) Sociological Research Methods in Context. London: Macmillan .
15.
Evetts, J. (1990) Women in Primary Teaching. London: Unwin Hyman .
16.
Ferlie, E. , L. Ashburner , L. Fitzgerald and A. Pettigrew (1996) The New Public Management in Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
17.
Finch, J. (1986) Research and Policy. London: Falmer .
18.
Foster, P. , Gomm R. and Hammersley, M. (1996) Constructing Educational Inequality: An Assessment of Research on School Processes. London: Falmer Press .
19.
Frey, J. (1989) Survey Research by Telephone. London: Sage .
20.
Fulton, O. (1996) ‘Which Academic Profession are You In?’ pp. 157-169 in R. Cuthbert , (ed.) Working in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press .
21.
Halford, S. , M. Savage and A Witz (1997) Gender, Careers and Organization. London: Macmillan .
22.
Halsey, A.H. (1992) Decline of Donnish Dominion: The British Academic Professions in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Clarendon .
23.
Hammersley, M. (1992) ‘On Feminist Methodology’ , Sociology26(2): 187-206 .
24.
Hammersley, M. (1994) ‘On Feminist Methodology: A Response,’Sociology28(1): 293-300 .
25.
Haraway, D. (1988) ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspectives’ , Feminist Studies14: 575-599 .
26.
Harding, S. (1987) Feminism and Methodology. Milton Keynes: Open University Press .
27.
Harding, S. (1991) Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?Milton Keynes: Open University Press .
28.
Hesse-Bibers, C. Gilmartin and R. Lydenberg (eds) (1999) Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology. New York: Oxford University Press .
29.
Heward, C. and P. Taylor (1994) ‘Women at the Top in Higher Education’ , Policy and Politics20(1): 111-121 .
30.
Hey, V. (2000) ‘The Construction of Academic Time: Subcontracting Academic Labour in Research’, Unpublished paper presented to British Sociological Association ‘Making Time, Marking Time’, University of York .
31.
Itzin, C. and J. Newman , (eds) (1995) Gender, Culture and Organizational Change. London: Routledge .
32.
Jayaratne, T.E. (1983) ‘The Value of Quantitative Methodology for Feminist Research’ pp. 140-161 in G. Bowles and Duelli Klein , (eds) Theories of Women’s Studies. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
33.
Lavrakos, P J. (1987) Telephone Survey Methods. London: Sage .
34.
Maddock, S. (1999) Challenging Women: Gender, Culture and Organization. London: Sage .
35.
Mason, J. (1996) Qualitative Researching. London: Sage .
36.
Maynard, M. and J. Purvis , (eds) (1994) Researching Women’s Lives from a Feminist Perspective. London: Taylor and Francis .
37.
Middlehurst, R. (1993) Leading Academics. Buckingham: Open University Press .
38.
Oakley, A. (1998) ‘Gender, Methodology and People’s Ways of Knowing: Some Problems with Feminism and the Paradigm Debate in Social Science’ , Sociology32(4): 707-732 .
39.
Oakley, A. (2000) Experiments in Knowing: Gender and Method in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Polity .
40.
Prichard, C. (1996) ‘University Management: Is It Men’s Work?’ in D. Collinson and J. Hearn , (eds) Men as Managers; Managers as Men: Critical Perspectives on Men, Masculinities and Managements. London: Sage .
41.
Prichard, C. and R. Deem (1999) ‘Wo-managing Further Education; Gender and the Construction of the Manager in the Corporate Colleges of England’ , Gender and Education11(3): 323-342 .
42.
Ramazanoglu, C. (1992) ‘On Feminist Methodology’ , Sociology26(2): 207-212 .
43.
Reinharz, S. (1992) Feminist Methods in Social Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
44.
Ribbens, J. and R. Edwards , (eds) (1998) Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research. London: Sage .
45.
Roberts, H. (ed.) (1981) Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge .
46.
Savage, M. and A. Witz , (eds) (1992) Gender and Bureaucracy. Sociological Review Monographs. Oxford: Blackwell .
47.
Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data. London: Sage .
48.
Silverman, D. (2000) Doing Qualitative Research. London, Sage .
49.
Skeggs, B. (1994) ‘Situating the Production of Feminist Ethnography’, in M. Maynard and J. Purvis , (eds) Researching Women’s Lives. London: Taylor and Francis .
50.
Skeggs, B. (1995) ‘Theorising, Representation and Ethics in Feminist Ethnography’, in B. Skeggs , (ed.) Feminist Cultural Theory: Process and Production. Manchester: Manchester University Press .
51.
Skeggs, B. (1997) Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable. Cambridge: Polity .
52.
Skeggs, B. (1999) ‘Matter Out of Place: Visibility and Sexualities in Leisure Spaces’ , Leisure Studies18(3).
53.
Skeggs, B. (2001) ‘Feminist Ethnography’ in P. Atkinson , A. Coffey and S. Delamont , (eds) Encyclopaedia of Ethnography. London: Sage .
54.
Smart, C. (1984) The Ties That Bind. London: Routledge .
55.
Stacey, J. (1988) ‘Can There be a Feminist Ethnography?’Women’s Studies International Forum11(1): 21-27 .
56.
Stanley, L. (ed.) (1990) Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology. London: Routledge .
57.
Stanley, L. and S. Wise (1993) Breaking Out Again. London: Routledge .
58.
Wajcman, J. (1998) Managing Like a Man. Cambridge: Polity .
59.
Weiner, G. and M. Arnot , (eds) (1987) Gender Under Scrutiny. London: Hutchinson .
60.
Whitehead, S. (1996) ‘Men/Managers and the Shifting Discourses of Post-compulsory education’ , Research in Post-Compulsory Education1(2): 151-168 .
61.
Whitehead, S. (1998) ‘Disrupted Selves: Resistance and Identity Work in the Managerial Area’ , Gender and Education10(2): 199-216 .
62.
Wilkinson, S. (1998) ‘Focus Groups in Feminist Research: Power, Interaction, and the Co-construction of Meaning’ , Women’s Studies International Forum21(1): 111-125 .
