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Nursing Times Research
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Reflexivity: A comment on feminist ethnography

Helen Allan, BSc(Soc), PGDE, RN, RNT

Royal College of Nursing Intitute London

This paper comments on feminist research and in particular the use of reflexivity in feminist ethnography. Reflexivity in ethnography is the use of self as an instrument of the data collection and the researcher's own awareness of reactions to the research data.

Ethnography requires that the researchers immerse themselves in the field and act reflexively while collecting data. I will discuss how using myself reflexively as a researcher during data collection in an assisted-conception unit led me to reconsider an assumption about the methodology underpinning feminist research approaches. It has been argued that feminist research approaches are women-centred and that debates on reproductive technologies are based on the premise that males control assisted conception.

My experience of undertaking a feminist ethnography has challenged these two assumptions. Reflection during and after the data collection has led me to question the aims of women-centred research in a field in which men are participants as doctors and patients. By discussing data from field work, I argue that including men in feminist research offers the potential for the emergence of a new type of research.

Key Words: Reflexivity • Power, Gender

Nursing Times Research, Vol. 2, No. 6, 455-467 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/174498719700200612
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