Breaking Out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology

264 Pages·1993·0.88 MB·English

by  Liz Stanley

Breaking out again
In the early 1980s feminist social science remained highly positivist
in its ideas about the research process. Consequently, the original
Breaking Out had a signal impact on ideas about feminist research.
Its authors, Liz Stanley and Sue Wise, were concerned to emphasize
that most aspects of positivism were antithetical to feminist
principles and practice, and also that most qualitative styles of
research tended to be as positivist as more scientistic and
quantitative ones.
In the first edition Liz Stanley and Sue Wise argued that
academic feminists, should be less concerned with the choice of
method and techniques and much more concerned with the
epistemological bases and claims of different styles of feminist
research. In making these arguments they challenged large areas of
existing feminist social theory, including ideas about socialization
and the hegemony of structural approaches which denied the
theoretical and political importance of everyday practice and
experience.
This new edition provides an introductory discussion of the
sociological, political and academic context in which Breaking Out
was first written, and reviews its reception among feminist
scholars. A new concluding section considers recent development
in feminist social thought, including essentialism,
deconstructionism and the epistemologies of the oppressed. In this
section the authors offer a new thesis for the feminist agenda,
based on their notion of fractured foundationalism.
Breaking Out Again thus provides a context to current debates
concerning the feminist research process as well as its own new
perspective. As a refreshing contribution to feminist social theory,
it will be widely read by students in women’s studies and sociology.
Liz Stanley is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of
Manchester, and Sue Wise is Lecturer in Applied Social Science at
the University of Lancaster.
Also available from Routledge
Feminist praxis
Research, theory and epistemology in feminist sociology
Edited by Liz Stanley
Doing Feminist Research
Helen Roberts
Partial visions
Feminism and utopianism in the 1970s
Angelika Bammer
Getting smart
Feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern
Patti Lather
Feminism and the contradictions of oppression
Caroline Ramazanoglu
Breaking out again

Feminist ontology and epistemology

Liz Stanley and Sue Wise

London and New York
First published as Breaking Out in 1983 by
Routledge & Kegan Paul plc

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
This second edition first published in 1993 by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

© 1983, 1993 Liz Stanley and Sue Wise

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Stanley, Liz, 1947–
Breaking out again: feminist ontology and epistemology/Liz
Stanley and Sue Wise. —2nd rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Feminism. 2. Women—Psychology. 3. Women in politics.
4. Women’s studies. I. Wise, Sue, 1953– . II. Title.
HQ1154.S642 1993
305.42—dc20 92–28809
CIP

ISBN 0-415-07270-0 (hbk)
0-415-07271-9 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-20161-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-20164-7 (Glassbook Format)
This book is dedicated to
Dale Spender and Pippa Brewster,
midwives of the original Breaking Out,
and to
Gill Davies,
a central figure in establishing British feminist publishing.

Contents

Acknowledgements: second edition ix
Introduction to the second edition 1
Introduction to the first edition 16
One Sunday afternoon… 16
… And its consequences 21
1 Feminism and the social sciences 26
Key themes in the feminist critique 27
Ripping-off the women’s movement? 36
Feminist criticisms: a brief critique 40
2 Feminist theory 45
Some current feminist writing (or ‘how
to prove a point’) 48
Theory, experience and research 58
Feminism, ‘our way’ 61
3 Beyond the personal? 66
The personal is the political—or is it? 67
Experience versus ‘the family’ 74
Theory and experience 88
4 Socialization and gender role: a sort of critique 92
‘The family’, socialization and gender role 93
Reflexivity and ‘role’ 103
Feminist theory of ‘the family’ as a structural
theory 110
viii Breaking out again
5 Feminist consciousness 119
Feminist consciousness and consciousness-
raising 120
Sexism and changing consciousness 124
Feminism and ‘the other’ 134
6 The research process 150
Positivism and naturalism 151
Involvement and emotion 159
Feminist social science research 163
7 ‘And so, dear reader…’ 173
Research and us 175
Sitting inside the circle… 180
… And breaking out 182
8 Breaking out again: afterword 186
Introduction 186
‘Feminist method’ and feminist
epistemology 188
A feminist ontology: theorizing
body, mind and emotion 194
A feminist ethic 200
‘Women’ and deconstructionism 204
Essentialism and constructionism 208
Representation and the question of
history 216
Difference and ‘différance’ 219
Epistemologies of the oppressed 222
Some concluding thoughts 228
References and further reading 234
Name index 247
Subject index 250
Acknowledgements
Second edition
Judith Aldridge, Bogusia Temple and Lisa Adkins read an earlier
draft of the introduction and afterword to this second edition. We
are grateful to them for their comments and criticisms. Celia Lury’s
review of Feminist Praxis nudged us in the direction of writing
about postmodernism—many thanks to her. We would also like to
thank the participants in the Feminist Thought seminar in the
Sociology Department at the University of Manchester—Jo Bird,
Tom Cockburn, Heather Elliott, Darlene Emerson, Miriam
Fitzsimons, Ruth Jamieson, Liz Jones, Merja Kapanen, Rebecca
Key, Rosemary Kidd, Debbie Lowe, Laila Luumi, Brigid Moss,
Karen Page, Maarit Ritvanen, Mika Saikkonen, Bogusia Temple
and Verena Wilde—for their useful responses to the draft of the
afterword and also to the recommended reading which surrounds it.
Furry thank yous all round to St Thomas Aquinas, Precious
Mackenzie, Jessye Norman, Mrs Whisky Rochester, Alfred Schutz
and Tiny Stray.