ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects upon the challenges of research involving WAFF/ex-combatants in Liberia. It explores the methodological and ethical difficulties experienced while conducting research that examined the gender mainstreaming provision of the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration program. The research puzzle reflected upon in the chapter concerns the ethical challenges encountered in field research. The chapter reflects upon the challenges of working with women in post-conflict environments. Within feminist approaches to methodology, the focus on respectful to respondents and acknowledging the subjectivity of the researcher is fundamental. It develops research strategies that can capture the data required without overstepping the boundaries of ethics for the feminist International Relations (IR) scholar. The chapter uses the common feminist tool of reflexive journaling to untangle the ethical issues that arose as well as detailing nuanced meta-data from non-verbal and other interactions and stories. Within feminist approaches to methodology, the focus on being respectful to respondents and acknowledging the subjectivity of the researcher is fundamental.
