ABSTRACT
The methodology of this exploration is interpretative rather than positivistic, and makes use of subjective material. In some senses it complies with the model of feminist research put forward by Liz Stanley and Sue Wise (1983). They argue that feminist research should begin with the personal, should name women’s own experience, recognising that women ‘are social beings… [who] interact with other people at all times, either physically or in our minds’ (p. 166). However, unlike Stanley and Wise’s model, it does not reject research carried out on women ‘subjects’ by a researcher. Stanley and Wise believe that such accounts are based on ‘fictitious sympathy’ if the researcher claims to share emotions but has not shared experiences. This exploration does use other people’s accounts of their feelings about the home and domestic labour, and accounts collected by other researchers, but recognises that the user of such sources must consider critically how such material is collected, the power relationship between research(er) and subject, and thus the status of the knowledge presented.
