Feminist Research

In this article, the author lays out her decision to lean on “feminist periscoping,” a methodological approach developed by the feminist geographer Nancy Hiemstra, to conduct her field research in India. The author then discusses the ways in which this feminist methodology proved to be useful in studying difficult-to-access subjects and spaces and the insights she gained by adopting a periscoping strategy.

The politics of gender and feminist research have outlined the deprivations and unequal entitlements in the lives of women. This frame has also produced the view that understanding women's lives is incomplete without looking at their everyday locations within families that must include relations with men. This research has tried to bring into focus the way that men's support can be outlined and reflected upon in the context of gender equality and domestic democracy. Supportive practices are more than an `alternative' frame within which to place men. They enable us to hear an aspect of men's lives and expressions of their subjective positions in ways that have not so far been addressed.