Do feminists use quantitative methods? a Content Analysis of Womens Studies Journals Rachel Cohen, Christina Hughes, Richard Lampard Study outline Preliminary analysis of articles published in gender, womens studies and feminist
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Do feminists use quantitative methods? a Content Analysis of ‘Women’s Studies’ Journals Rachel Cohen, Christina Hughes, Richard Lampard<br>
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Study outline Preliminary analysis of articles published in gender, women’s studies and feminist journals.
Journals selected from ISI citation index (‘Women’s Studies’ category). Top cited journals (English language), plus selected others with ‘feminist’/’feminism’ in title.
Analysis of every full article in first and last issue of 2007 (unless ‘Special Issue’, then next issue chosen).
Current N = 256 articles from 19 journals.
Future project – extend this historically.<br>
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Journals included in the study Journals included N articles
Gender and Society 11
Women's Health Issues 13
Gender, Work and Organisation 9
Feminist Review 16
Feminist Studies 12
Gender, Place and Culture 14
Women's Studies International Forum 14
Violence Against Women 12
Psychology of Women Quarterly 19
Social Politics 10 Journals included N articles
European Journal of Women's Studies 9
Journal of Gender Studies 11
Women and Health 13
Feminism and Psychology 11
Sex Roles 24
Journal of Aging 11
Feminist Economics 9
Signs 12
Journal of Women’s Health 26
Total 256<br>
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Overview of methodological approaches in Women’s Studies articles.<br>
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Overview of feminist engagement in Women’s Studies articles.<br>
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Variation by journal (discipline?) Exemplar quantitative journals:
Women’s Health Issues: 92% Quantitative, 8% mixed
Psychology of Women Quarterly: 84% Quant, 16% mixed
Feminist Economics: 67% Quant, 33% Theoretical
Exemplar non-quantitative journals
Feminist Review: 92% Qualitative, 8% Mixed
Gender, Place and Culture: 57% Qual, 36% Theoretical, 7% Quant
Feminism and Psychology: 73% Qual, 18% Theoretical, 9% Quant<br>
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Framing of publication spaces and methodological choice<br>
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Geographic base and methodological choice<br>
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Logistic Regression of quantitative methods use (summary) The following increased the likelihood of quantitative methods being used:
US author affiliation
Publishing in a journal with ‘women’ identification
Male second author (first, third and fourth authors have no significant influence!)
Absence of methodological justification
The following decreased the likelihood of quantitative methods being used:
Publishing in a journal with ‘feminist’, ‘women studies’ or ‘gender’ identification
Engagement with feminist literature (note: this accounted for all of an initial effect of explicit feminist positioning)
Either feminist, transformative or ‘other’ methodological justification<br>
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Do feminists count? Published articles on women, gender and feminism do employ quantitative methods.
But those published in explicitly feminist/gender studies journals that engage most thoroughly with the feminist literature rarely do.
Moreover, even when quantitative methods are used by feminists, explicitly ‘feminist’ methodological justifications for using quantitative methods are not given.
[Geography and discipline matter...]<br>
