ABSTRACT
In this chapter I outline the epistemology, methodology and methods utilised in this research with a view to making sense of the theoretical and empirical dimensions of the project. I elaborate on sociological and feminist methodologies through the lens of the structure/agency debate and the emphasis in feminist methodologies on ‘situated knowledges’. To this end I make explicit my own social location and its impact on the research topic and analysis. For the theoretical component, I outline the different uses of theory, including the importance of ‘excavation’ and interdisciplinarity when extant models prove lacking. I outline how my theory of women’s duality was developed through locating and combining theories in discrete disciplinary locales including political philosophy, history, sociology and feminist social and political theory. For the empirical study I elaborate on the use of feminist interviewing techniques and discuss my preference for a thematic case study presentation of the interview data, given both the small sample size and my desire to situate this in the broader societal context. The interpretive frame and coding techniques are discussed including the identification of common themes and how these were used to structure the case studies. In addition, I discuss how the theoretical framework of duality was the basis for interpreting revolving mothers’ unique historical position and their atypical capacity to negotiate out of the ‘default position’ in the home.
