Although there are many advantages to the various feminist research methods existing, there are also feminist critiques that analyze the methods in various ways. According to Kathryn Cirksena and Lisa Cuklanz, understanding the various methods of communication has many gender inequalities associated with it. Both quantitative and interpretative are forms of feminist research methods used to gather research and analysis, but some feminist critiques believe that feminist approaches have had slight impact. The relationship between media, culture and gender is socially shaped and there is no set feminist answer to how this relation should be recognized, and acted upon. For example, Cirksena and Cuklanz illustrate that until recently scientific knowledge was "based on limited and distorted information, was tied to norms based on men¹s experiences of the world, and, most significantly, any consideration of the unique aspects of women¹s experiences was notably absent" Cirksena & Cuklanz, p.38. Women¹s experiences, knowledge and behaviors have little been studied when doing research because men¹s experiences are taken as the norm and so researchers have to look somewhere else for proof of their life experiences. Cirksena and Cuklanz also explain that feminist scholarship studies the less public forms of communication, for instance, "the diaries, letters, and gossip rather than the public speeches, published philosophical treaties, or state documents" Cirksena & Cuklanz, p.38. Therefore, the less public forms of communication become the norm for studying women, because they provide the experiences, knowledge and behaviors of women¹s lives. Even though there are many criticisms toward feminist methods of communication, these criticisms should play a significant part in developing alternatives of structuring knowledge and experience and practice in communication, culture and media.

 

HOME