In Search of Heroines: Some Reflections on Normativity in Feminist Research

Abstract

Feminist research is explicitly committed to validating (women) informants' experiences, situating them in a context of gender and power relations, and explicating the researcher's own social and cultural position. Such commitments may not be enough, however, when our negative and positive feelings about our informants get in the way of doing our research. In this article, we draw upon our research on women in care professions and our own desire to find feminist heroines within their ranks. After describing our respective experiences of glorifying or dismissing our informants, we explore three strategies for coming to terms with implicit or ‘gut-level’ normativity in feminist research.