ABSTRACT
Since earlier readings have shown that feminist scholarship occurs in many disciplinary locations, one might question why a separate section on feminist studies is included in the present volume. Such a question echoes earlier queries about the need to establish a distinct discipline of women’s or gender or feminist studies. As we have seen, the new discipline was originally founded for both academic and political reasons. By establishing a new and distinct discipline, feminist scholars drew attention to issues of gender and encouraged exchange among researchers from a variety of traditional disciplines; they also legitimated research on gender and provided an academic home for embattled feminist scholars. One reason this book includes a separate section on feminist studies is to present some of the discussions on methodology that have taken place within academic arenas that are distinguished explicitly as feminist; another is to demonstrate that even research sailing under a feminist flag is not immune from methodological criticism.
