Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. Edited by
Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2006. 316p. $75.00 cloth, $29.99 paper.
This volume presents a marvelous account of feminist methodologies.
Mainstream scholars might find it all too easy to dismiss when confronted
immediately with its refusal to define feminist methodologies and its jabs
at quantitative methodologists for presumably assuming their work to be
value neutral. Such a dismissal, however, would be a grave mistake. For
the book presents a collage of perspectives on feminist methodology. The
essays address the questions feminists ask, why they ask such questions,
what we learn from these approaches, and how this research contributes to
our knowledge. This is not a “how to” book, as you do need to
reach your own conclusions—to find your own way methodologically.
But this apparent lack of direction is more of an invitation to experiment
and to add to our knowledge. And this unrestrained quest for knowledge is
precisely the point of feminist methodology as conceived by the
authors.