ABSTRACT
Agricultural research using feminist epistemology and methodology is unrestricted in the methods employed to conduct research. Rather the focus is on how the study is to be conducted, how the selected tools will be deployed, and the presumption of an engaged stance with ultimate goals of gender equality, women’s empowerment, and transformative approaches to gender roles and relations. A gender lens that raises new questions and topics, addresses power differentials and dynamics among researchers and respondents, practices reflexivity and situated knowledge, and avoids simple binaries in favor of intersectional locations and identities brings new insight and understanding to agricultural production, consumption, and divisions of labor. This chapter summarizes the elements of feminist approaches to agricultural research, especially in the global south, and addresses some of the practical issues they raise by reference to exemplars and actual practices. Different research designs are scrutinized and compared, and the dilemmas faced in real-world practice are discussed.
