Feminist Theories: Knowledge, Method, and Practice

Feminist theory, method, and praxis: Toward a critical consciousness for family and close relationship scholars

“…In the study of families and close relationships, current features of feminist theory include intersectionality, interdisciplinarity, and internationalism (Allen et al, 2009). Feminist theory has both pioneered and elaborated upon the empirical study of topics such as invisible household labor, inter- and intra-generational carework, sexual and domestic violence, and the making and unmaking of gender in families (Allen et al, 2022). Feminist family theorists have brought a rhetoric of transformation to the personal lives of scholars, to the families they study, to the students they teach, to the activist work they do in the academy, and to the social science they advance (e.g., Allen, 2016; Few-Demo et al, 2016; Kaestle, 2016; Lewis, 2009; Sharp & Weaver, 2015; Walker, 2000).…”

“…Feminist scholars have offered numerous metaphors and theoretical perspectives for describing the contributions and historical shifts in feminist thinking and action (Allen et al, 2022; Freedman, 2002; Reger, 2014; Sharp & Weaver, 2015; Srinivasan, 2021), including concepts such as waves and/or generations (Aikau et al, 2007; Reger, 2017) and tapestries (Lewis & Marine, 2015). For a general audience, commentators often resort to the wave metaphor, describing at least four waves of feminist movement, mainly associated with feminist activism in the United States, and more recently in the United Kingdom (Chamberlain, 2017).…”

“…The wave metaphor is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because it provides a linguistic framing that has been widely distributed in the popular vernacular primarily through journalistic accounts and social media (Allen et al, 2022; Chamberlain, 2017), and a curse because it is impossible to capture all of the complexity and diversity of feminist thinking in a single word, page, chapter, book, or discipline. Thus, I use the wave metaphor cautiously, as a heuristic (i.e., a theoretical tool), to sketch the dynamic nature of feminist thinking and action, admitting that in using this metaphor, I am also betraying its indeterminacy by representing it as a frozen temporality, and thus reducing its dynamism.…”

“…Although there is no singular orthodoxy in feminism, that does not mean that “anything goes”; indeed, feminism stands against all forms of domination (hooks, 1984). As an analysis and critique of power, feminism is inherently political (Allen et al, 2022; Few-Demo et al, 2014; Lewis, 2009).…”

“…Feminist reflexive practice, which I employ here, is the soul work that inspires feminist theorizing and activism around the world (Allen et al, 2022). Feminist engagement encourages an academic and activist approach to applying an understanding of the sociological imagination (Mills, 1959) to the art and science of critical storytelling and “writing the social” (Davis et al, 2021; Gornick, 2001; Krieger, 1996; Lorde, 1984; Richardson, 1997; Smith, 2004).…”