ABSTRACT
This chapter contextualizes feminists' dilemmas in fieldwork over time and geographical spaces with a particular focus on research on women in "Third World" countries and among women of color in the West. The most central dilemma for contemporary feminists in fieldwork, from which other contradictions are derived, is power and the unequal hierarchies or levels of control that are often maintained, perpetuated, created, and re-created during and after field research. One of the major challenges of feminist epistemology to mainstream science and social science has been a powerful critique of positivism and its underlying assumptions. Postmodernist theorizing has created opportunities for further innovation in research methods and the post-fieldwork process, particularly representation and writing. A number of feminists argue that postmodernism poses certain obstacles to feminism. The chapter explains the dilemmas of power inherent in the fieldwork and post-fieldwork process that plague the most self-conscious and well-meaning researcher.
