TY - JOUR PY - 2003// TI - Feminist Dilemmas in Data Analysis JO - Qualitative social work A1 - Lister, Pam Green SP - 45 EP - 59 VL - 2 IS - 1 N2 - In this article, I seek to explore some of the theoretical and political dilemmas I faced as a feminist qualitative researcher in the field of child sexual abuse. The article draws on my research into the use of creative writing by women survivors of sexual abuse. I begin my article with a discussion of how I entered the research process as a feminist researcher. I consider how my choice of research topic raised a number of ethical issues. I then engage in a discussion of the challenges of data analysis for feminist researchers. In order to illustrate the challenges I faced in my research, I focus on how women survivors use writing to explore memory. Theoretical perspectives on memory and women survivors of sexual abuse are explored, before I summarize my findings in this area. In analysing women’s use of writing to explore memory, I outline the interpretive tensions I faced at a range of levels of analysis. I demonstrate how I tried to ensure that women survivors’ voices were privileged, while I also engaged in the theoretical and political debates in the field. I conclude that feminist researchers need to develop epistemologies that can meet the complexity of the world as experienced and understood by our research subjects.
LA - SN - 1473-3250 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473325003002001280 ID - ref1 ER -