ABSTRACT
Feminist epistemology and research methods have become subjects of vital debate over the last 15 years. Feminist epistemology begins by understanding that scholarly practices are located in time and place and are carried out by people with social and political identities. The socially defined and culturally specific environments in which women live and work provide rich contexts for innovation and experimentation. The practices of silencing and overlooking women in the construction of science have enabled scientists to arrogate to themselves the power to define women's characters and needs. By increasing social demands to understand the contours of women's lives, feminist researchers support activism by and for women. In the process of such work, feminist research also defines baselines for assessing change in the conditions of women, an important component of effective policy research. Science is also the poorer for neglecting the contributions that women have made, outside of the institutions of science, to our collective knowledge of nature and society.
