Feminist Research Methods

1 FEMINIST RESEARCH METHODS Sylvia H. Guerrero (ed.). (1999). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers. Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. 317 pages. 

Divided into five parts: Part I: Women-centered research and reproductive health and thinking feminist Part II: Research designs and strategies Part III: Methods and techniques Part IV: Qualitative and feminist analysis Part V: Special Topics

Key Terms Reproductive Health  It is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and all its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide when, and how often to do so (Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, 1996).  Three basic principles: 1) Trust in women and in their capability to make decisions about reproduction based on access to adequate information and appropriate services. 2) Sensitivity to and understanding of women’s reproductive experience. 3) Connecting the various levels of intervention—community, country, and international—in planning and implementing health programs. Feminist Research  It involves a more critical examination of prevailing methods and techniques in health studies which have been predominantly quantitative and positivist in orientation, or studies that have been described as research on rather than for women.  Guiding principles: - “A connected relationship between researcher and research between knower and known” (Thompson, 1992 in Guerrero, 1999) - Incorporates women’s ways of knowing: “mingling reason and emotion, intuition and analytic thought” (Thompson, 1992 in Guerrero, 1999) - Understanding realities: reflexivity and consciousness-raising - Going beyond knowledge generation: engaging in action for change  There is affirmation that knowledge must move beyond knowledge for its own sake. It emphasizes generation of knowledge about women that will contribute to women’s liberation and emancipation. Thus, research becomes instrumental in improving women’s daily lives and influencing public policies as well (Maguire, 1987 in Guerrero, 1999).  Drawing on the earlier works of Shulamit Reinharz (1992) and Ann Oakley (1992), feminist research acknowledges the diversity of feminist research practices and the need to employ methods that are appropriate and sensitive to the issues being studied. Hence, feminist research is open to both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. Ethics in Feminist Research Essential features:

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Reaffirmation of old research ethics such as Benefits and Reciprocity, Informed Consent, and Privacy and Confidentiality Breaking down the research hierarchy Ethics of personal involvement and participation The liberatory goal and responsible research Researcher’s self-reflexivity Ethics in processing the data Conduct of researchers vis-à-vis the funding agencies, their institutions, and the research hierarchy

RESEARCH DESIGNS AND STRATEGIES Research design – the whole plan and blueprint for the inquiry * A major guiding principle in choosing the design is the appropriateness and suitability of the strategy/plan to the research problem and concern. Surveys – consists of asking questions of a (supposedly) representative cross-section of the population. The logic of surveys is that it is generally not feasible to interview everyone in the population (Perez, 1999).  Particularly useful to arrive at generalizations for descriptive and explanatory analyses where large numbers are essential.  Types of surveys according to time dimension (a) Cross-sectional surveys – conclusions are based on observations made at one time only. (b) Longitudinal surveys – surveys repeated to generate descriptions and explanations of large population over several points in time - Trend studies – study changes within some general population over time (e.g., surveys conducted every 5 years from 1978 to 1993 to study trends in proportions of women in the childbearing ages 15-44 for 4 points in time) - Cohort studies – examine specific segments of the population as they change over time (e.g., survey to study the employment attitudes of the cohort of women born during the 1930s. A sample of 20-25 years might be surveyed in 1950, another sample of 30-35 in 1960, and another sample of 40-45 years in 1970.) - Panel studies – similar to trend and cohort analyses except that the same set of people is studied each time the survey is conducted (e.g., a contraceptive switch study among women aged 25-34 years in which the same women would be interviewed every 6 months for 2 years and asked the contraceptive method they use at each survey).  Three broad survey approaches: mailed questionnaire, telephone interview, and face-toface interview. In most cases, face-to-face interview is the preferred approach because it allows for flexibility and observation of non-verbal behavior and generates higher response rates.  Criticisms/Limitations of survey research - Survey research is based on an unrealistic stimulus response theory of cognition and behavior. - It is assumed that a survey question will mean the same thing to every respondent, and every given response must mean the same when given by different respondents. - Survey research demands that the survey interviewers remain neutral by following the question wording and sequence exactly as it appears in the questionnaire, to record responses exactly as they are given by the respondents, and to probe when respondents respond to a question with an inappropriate answer. - Survey research also assumes that all members of the initial sample of respondents

3 complete the survey interview. - Survey research, unlike studies involving direct observation, typically requires that an initial study design remain unchanged. Surveys can seldom deal with the context of social life. Experimental research methodology - its strongest feature is its ability to demonstrate causality.  Two dimensions of an experiment: where it takes place (laboratory v. field) and how much involvement the researcher has in producing the causal antecedent (true v. natural). Control is at the heart of these two classification schemes.  Pre-experimental designs (a) One-shot case study (b) One-group pretest-posttest design (c) Static-group comparison  Experimental designs (a) True experimental design (b) Solomon four-group design (c) Post-test-only control group design  Quasi-experimental designs - ideal for situations wherein the conditions for a true experiment cannot be met (i.e., equivalence through randomization cannot be met because the natural situation precludes it). Rather than comparing a randomized experimental group to a randomized control group that has not been administered the treatment, in a quasi-experimental design, comparisons are made with a nonequivalent control group or a pre-existent comparison group that has had no exposure to the treatment. - Regression-discontinuity experiment - Time-series experiment  Issues in experimental research - Artificiality of the experiment - Ethical concerns Naturalism – a research philosophy rather than a particular method; developed as a reaction to positivism. Its emphasis is on studying social phenomena in natural settings not in a laboratory or artificial setting. It seeks to reproduce reality “as is” (Tan, 1999). Strengths of Naturalism  The naturalistic perspective provides a much-needed critique of the validity of experimental methods that are still quite pervasive in sexuality research, particularly in the evaluation of interventions.  Another strength is the important reference to local knowledge.  Its emphasis on immersion in communities, an immersion that includes participation in people’s activities rather than pretending to be able to able to remain the detached observer.  The naturalist perspective tries to draw out people’s rationalities, how they explain facts. This perspective looks at people’s knowledge in its widest sense. Life history/life story/oral history/story Life history – presents the experiences and definitions held by one person, one group, or one organization as this person, group, or organization interprets these experiences. Life story/Kuwentong buhay – a record of one’s inner life from the individual’s point of view (Aquino, 1999)

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In literature, autobiographies and biographies were the earliest sources of life history. In anthropology, life history approach is credited to the Chicago School of Sociology (Park, Burgess, Sutherland, et al) qualitative studies of deviance, crime, and sociology of a city done in 1920-40. Thomas and Znaniecki’s The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918) is believed to have influenced the Chicago School of Sociology. This work contains letters and documents of life of ordinary peasants and their families. In the 1940s, however, qualitative research in the US was overshadowed by the rise of quantitative research. Interestingly, qualitative research using life story was continued in Poland. In Europe, particularly in the UK, oral histories were used due to the dominance and influence of the Labour Party. According to Frisch, oral history is a powerful tool for discovering, exploring and evaluating the nature of the process of historical memory—how people make sense of their past, how they connect individual experience and its social context, how the past becomes part of the present, and how people use it to interpret their lives and the world around them. Feminism has played a crucial role in the development of oral history especially in the 1960s. Interactionist perspective – distaste for abstraction, reification, and absolutes; humans inhabit dual worlds, material and symbolic, their interactions are predicated upon the emergences of selves through which they are able to be self-reflexive, communicate and take the roles of others; meaning has to be worked out in encounters and while temporarily agreed upon is ever flowing and never fixed; lives and social order are open and negotiable; importance of the subjective viewpoint These traits are shared by the interactionist perspective and feminism. Important themes in life story (a) Stories and social constructs - Interactionist approach not aimed at a linear or definite story. Experience is a stream, a flow; social structures are seamless webs of criss-crossing negotiations; biographies are in a constant state of becoming and as they evolve so their subjective accounts of themselves evolve (Plummer, 1983 in Aquino, 1999). - According to Coleman (1991 in Aquino, 1999), a life history is not a static product of an individual at a particular point in time, but a developing process reflecting a changing view of the life course. - Viewpoint of the person telling the story is given importance and so are their reactions, facial expressions, and other mannerisms. (b) The relationship between the teller of life story and the researcher - Research reports do not always pay attention to fieldwork relations or to how data are analyzed. Feminist methods have departed from this practice. - “The critical questions for oral interviewers are whose story is the woman asked to tell, who interprets it, and in what contexts? The subject’s story (the data) is the result of an interaction between two people. The personality and the biases of the researcher clearly enter into the process to affect the outcome. Is the woman’s understanding of her own experience that is sought, or is the researcher structuring the interview so that the subject tells a story that conforms to the researcher’s orientation? If the goal of the interview is to encourage the woman to tell her own story, to speak in her own terms, then how one asks questions, and in what words, becomes critical to the outcome of the interview” (Jack in Anderson et al., 1987, as quoted in Aquino, 1999). - Democratic process - the researcher must also be willing to share a part of herself to the interview process so that it becomes reciprocal (Bhave, 1988 in Aquino, 1999). (c) The relationship among the individual, culture, and structure - “Clearly, individual’s actions are reflected in their life histories and those of

5 others, but equally, individuals’ life experiences reflect the structural facts which impinged upon them and moulded or constrained their experiences and actions. Market demand and supply factors (but not solely through labour markets) as well as demographic changes and government policies, legislation and changes in the socio-legal framework are all examples of influences individuals might experience. As well as the recognition of the importance of these factors and their timing in understanding the patterns of individuals’ experiences, life and work history analysis can be an avenue to researching other institutional and structural changes” (Dex, 1991 in Aquino, 1999). - According to Giddens (1991 in Aquino, 1999), it is important to look not only at the response of an individual to the events within the structure but also at the individual’s initiative, daily struggles, creative resistance that show that the individual is not a mere passive victim of the culture or social structure. 

Writing women’s history according to women’s terms

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES Sampling Designs  The choice of sampling design that will provide probability sample depends on the nature of your study, resource factors (time, cost, personnel), and efficiency.  Types: 1) Simple random sampling 2) Stratified sampling 3) Cluster sampling  Irrespective of the kind of sampling design used, the larger the sample size, the more accurate the results but costlier.  The sample size must be large enough to (a) allow for reliable analysis of cross-tabulations, (b) provide for desired levels of accuracy on estimates of proportions of means, and (c) test for the significance of differences between proportions or means. Feminist Ethnography  Feminist ethnography must serve the immediate and long-term interest of women, both those who provide the research information and those who stand to benefit from the results of the study, including the researcher.  Feminist ethnography must enhance gender inequality and liberate women from patriarchy and other forms of oppression.  Feminist ethnography must use feminist theories in the analysis of data.  Feminist ethnography must generate concepts that will contribute to a better understanding of gender relations.  Essentials of feminist ethnography: 1) Language and voices – be sensitive to people’s language especially women’s ways of describing their experiences; hold gender awareness workshops in cases where local culture inhibits women from sharing their experience of domestic violence and other oppressive practices 2) Behavior – actions as important as words; participate in their day-to-day activities 3) Emotions – understand the depth and range of emotions; sensitivity to local words and expressions as well as non-verbal behavior that signify various kinds of emotions 4) Interconnections – look for possible interconnections between your research concerns and the larger social milieu 5) Diversity – pay attention to the diversity of women and their experiences 6) Participatory engagement – try as much as possible to involve the women, your research partners, in the different phases of the research project 7) Diachronic processes – be sensitive to past events and developments and their effect on contemporary life

6 8) Reflexivity – always be aware of how you as a researcher or how your presence is influencing what is being observed and the findings that result from the study 

Strategies for collecting information 1) Pagmamasid (observation) 2) Pakikiramdam (feeling your way through) 3) Pakikilahok (participation) 4) Pagtatanong-tanong (interview) 5) Pakikipagkwentuhan (conversation) 6) Sama-samang talakayan (focus group discussion) 7) Collection of secondary and primary data

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Feminist research underscores the importance of mutual transformation and the breaking down of boundaries between the researcher and the informant.

Participatory Action Research (PAR)  Center for Women’s Research and PAR  Center for Women’s Research was born in 1983 out of a need to channel the rage of countless women against the Marcos dictatorship into sustained and organized action. Its purpose was to take an active role in building a strong women’s movement.  First 5 years: CWR looked at conditions of women from the basic sectors focusing on the peasantry, the workers, the urban poor and indigenous communities. They gathered data on their role in production and household work, participation in community undertakings, and decisionmaking within the family.  Other research topics: violence against women, women in disaster-affected areas, impact of government economic programs and policies on women at the grassroots  Research dictates: 1) Women-directed or in accordance with the needs of the women’s organizations and centers and based on a reading of the economic, political, and sociocultural situation 2) Participatory or with the direct involvement of the partner organization in all aspects 3) Action-oriented or with a defined usefulness for CWR and the partner organization  CWR’s Research Core Team – sets the research design, develops the data-gathering instruments and framework for data analysis, provides guidance in data gathering and collation, and decides on changes in any aspect of research process. The idea of the research core team evolved from CWR’s long experience in making research work a collaborative undertaking with women’s groups.  CWR established close connection with national or local sectoral women’s organizations or regional women’s centers.  Some of CWR research projects were funded by agencies such as World Bank and UNICEF. Interviewing Women and Children A. The Counseling Interview  Counseling is a dialogue between the client and the counselor in an atmosphere that is warm, accepting, and nonjudgmental. The counselor helps the client develop as a person by helping him or her deal with his or her concerns and problems which otherwise keep him or her from reaching her his or her full potential.  Counseling takes a feminist perspective when it seeks to empower the woman client to make a decision which gives her more freedom, while at the same time taking responsibility for it. It breaks out of the usual counseling paradigm based on a mental health concept which is basically masculine.  Counseling is basically done through the interview, which guides the woman client woman client through the initial stage of establishing the relationship between the counselor and the woman client, exploring the woman’s concerns and opening all possible options, and on guiding the woman client in deciding on the course of the most appropriate action.

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The counseling interview 1) Listening 2) Verbal responding - Accepting the woman client - Establishing the relationship - Relating the current to the previous counseling session - Restating - Observing - Reflecting - Encouraging/Sharing - Silence - Focusing - Clarifying - Interpreting - Introducing options - Summarizing - Relating the current session with the succeeding session - Reinforcing, empowering

B. Child-Sensitive Interviewing  An important prerequisite to interviewing children is a little background on children’s memory ability, their suggestibility, and narrative ability.  Children’s memory ability - Children have good memory ability, but just like adults their memory is not infallible and it fades over time - Memory retrieval strategies – little children have to be prompted or coached on how to remember a certain event/incident. But as they grow older, they need less of this prompting to trigger their memory, and by age 8 or 9, they are unable to generate and use retrieval strategies spontaneously. - Children remember events/incidents in a selective manner. Depending on their level of knowledge and experience, their stage of cognitive development and their ability to reason and conclude, they remember only parts if an incident based on what they important in their own young minds. - The context, certain characteristics of the setting and atmosphere, can facilitate or undermine the child’s memory function. Children’s narrative ability  Children’s narrative ability is limited at first, consisting only of a very skeletal structure and is very loosely organized. The ability to narrate past events begins to emerge only during the preschool and grade school years.  Children’s suggestibility - Suggestibility is not simply a matter of age. It depends on factors such as the situation, inherent development and personality factors, the type of event, the importance of impact of the event, the type of information sought by the interviewer, the way the interviews was conducted, the language used, and other influences prior to and during the interview. But at approximately 10 or 11 years of age, children are no more suggestible than adult (Myers et al., 1996 in Guerrero-Manalo, 1999). - When tackling the issue of suggestibility, one must also address the effects of multiple interviews. Studies show that there appears to be little to lose and much to gain by eliminating multiple interviews (Myers et al., 1996 in Guerrero-Manalo, 1999). This is because multiple interviews add more stress to an already vulnerable child; and with more interviews, the greater the chance that the interviewer will ask unnecessarily suggestive questions.  The quality of a child’s narrative or testimony depends more on the communicative competence of an adult rather than the child’s. Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

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According to Bailey (1994 in Gastardo-Conaco, 1999), focus groups saw modest growth in the 1970s and a rapid rise in the 1980s reaching maturity and an almost faddish status in the 1980s and the 1990s, particularly in the 1990s when almost everyone appeared to jump into the FGD bandwagon. Earlier in its development, focus groups enjoyed much success in market research where their greatest utility was in exploring in-depth what consumers really think about products, whether they will buy these products, and their reasons for their behavior. FGD was also used early on as a tool in evaluative and applied research projects. Although FGD is often used to augment data from larger surveys, they are also used as independent data-gathering methods. In recent years, feminists informed by postpositivist philosophies of science have used the FGD to engage in participatory and transformative research. Their standards for doing the FGD, therefore, differ from those of traditional social science researchers. They put greater importance on intersubjectivity, underscore differences and diversity, while attempting to also understand common experiences and viewpoints. They value the process of data collection that is dialogic and nonhierarchical, as well as maximize the FGD’s potential for consciousness raising of participants and as a venue for negotiations. FGD is a discussion-based interview that produces a particular type of qualitative data. It involves the simultaneous use of multiple respondents to generate data and it is the ‘focused’ (that is, on an ‘external stimulus’) and relatively staged (that is, by a ‘moderator’) nature of the focus group method that separates it from other types of group interviewing strategy. According to some, a focus group is no more than a well-targeted and well-designed meeting (Millward, 1995 in Gastardo-Conaco, 1999). On the local scene, a cultural variant of the FGD, the Ginabayang Talakayan (GT), has been developed by researchers and practitioners of Sikolohiyang Pilipino. It’s similar to how the FGD is carried out but the difference lies in the strong emphasis on cultural sensitivity, knowledge of Sikolohiyang Pilipino by its users and participants, and the utilization of this theoretical framework on subsequent data analysis (Dalisay, 1996 in Gastardo-Conaco, 1999). Issues for consideration (a) Role of silence (b) Emphasis on verbal interaction (c) cical concerns The FGD as a tool for feminist research. A roundtable discussion at the UP Center for Women’s Studies on FGD methodology brought out its many potential strong points: - It is useful for raising consciousness and promoting solidarity among women especially in discussing violence. - It facilitates women speaking up and provides learning for all participants. - It is a social gathering for women, an opportunity for them to get out of their daily condition, to express themselves and share their many experiences. - According to Cecille Hoffman, women who have participated in the FGD have been most appreciative and have talked about how it has been one of the nicest things that have ever happened in their life. - But a more important point is what happens to them after the FGD. Allowing women to express themselves is fine; consciousness raising is very important; but will there be a substantial impact on their lives after that? - Since feminist research aims to describe, understand, and theorize about women’s lives in the context of women’s lived experiences and from their own perspective, it is important that the FGD becomes an opportunity for a free-wheeling but not directionless sharing of views. - Kintanar (1997) underscores the sensitive role of the facilitator and recorder in FGD. The facilitator must enable all the participants to discuss as well as listen to each other’s views. - Where class, ethnicity, age, and other factors seem to stifle the free flow of ideas, popular forms of facilitation (e.g., unfreezing exercises and games) may be used. - It is important that a climate of openness, trust, and flexibility as well as feeling of stability be established at the onset.

9 - The recorder must make sure that the documentation of the FGD results reflects the diversity and richness of the women’s voices. Creative and Projective Techniques Drama-Forum  Akin to the FGD because it produces a particular type of data. It involved the simultaneous participation of multiple participation of multiple respondents to generate data.  It is most useful when attempting to surface culture-sensitive and gender-sensitive themes that are hard to measure in more structured researches.  Both researcher and participant are engaged in active dialogue, where one learns from the other. Thus the forum becomes more meaningful and relates to the concrete experiences of the female and male participants who are stimulated to involve themselves into a process of deeper reflection and further action (Ancheta-Templa, 1999).  The cloth-diaper: The Davao City experience o In 1995, a research project aimed at policy development on women was conceptualized. Key informants from NGOs in Davao City, who were identified through DIWATA, a women’s NGO network participated. Other participants were women and men from grassroots and middle class and government employees. o Gender-sensitization sessions were conducted where issues such as social construction of gender, sexuality, and trends on the Philippine women’s movement and gov’t responses to women’s cause were tackled. These sessions led to a qualitative data collection through the use of drama-forum. o Passage of Women Development Code of Davao City, “An Ordinance Providing an Integrated Gender and Development Support System in Davao City” Community theatre  The concept of community theatre was borne out of the desire of the Development of Peoples Foundation (DPF), an NGO that pioneered the evolution of primary health care approach to community development in Mindanao from the late 1960s through the 1980s, to share the information with other community members. It was conceived to give women a voice, an opportunity to express themselves (Canson, 1999).  Theatre group Sining Lola was founded to find a medium for presenting zarsuelas that would depict crimes suffered by women in a sharp, witty, and humorous way. But sensibilities of some women who shared their experiences were offended and felt that they were betrayed by the dramatists. This led the theatre group to find an alternative medium.  Puppetry was chosen as an alternative: 1) It allows for a simple but a bold presentation where the message can be strengthened by satire and ridicule. 2) It can serve as a platform for controversial ideas: A puppet can say “penis” and “vagina” without making the audience feel squeamish. Main limitation: It cannot carry a mass of detailed information, complex procedures or a complicated series of events. QUALITATIVE AND FEMINIST ANALYSIS Textual analysis  Analysis of text using Structuralism and Poststructuralism Structuralism  Ferdinand de Saussure saw language as a system of signs, each sign comprising a signifier (the sound pattern or written image) and the signified, the concept represented by the signifier. He opposes this to the traditional notion of language as a system of nomenclature, that is, a list of terms corresponding to a list of things and its underlying assumption that ideas already exist independently of words and that the connection between a name and a thing is natural or

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unproblematic. Primarily interested in how a language works as a system, de Saussure focuses only on how signs acquire meaning in terms of their difference from other signs in the system. Thus he concentrates on the two terms of the sign, the signifier and the signified. He ignores the referent or what the sign points to in the real world. Major points of Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory: o There is no preexistent meaning. Rather than language being transparent, transmitting an idea or a “meaning” which precedes it, language in fact constructs meaning. o Meaning is socially and collectively constructed. The structures of a language which enable it to be functional or meaningful are a product of society, that is, the totality of individuals that make up a language community. o Meaning is not referential; meaning is not to be found in individual words and what they refer to but in their relationship to other signs in the system. This relationship may be described as oppositional or one of difference. Thus, “cat “ has meaning only by virtue of its difference from “rat,” “car,” or “mat,” or any other sign, not by virtue of its intrinsic relationship with the concept for which it stands, nor by virtue of its reference to any object in the real world. Meaning is thus relational and differential.

Poststructuralism  Poststruralists, exemplified by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, disregarded the referent and concentrated on the written text. They draw out the implications of meaning as difference by posing the dilemma that there cannot be a simple one-to-one relationship between a signifier and its signified nor is there a clear difference between the two.  According to Terry Eagleton (1983), “[i]f you want to know the meaning (or signified) of a signifier, you can look it up in a dictionary, but all you will find will be yet more signifiers whose signifieds you can in turn look up and so on. The process...is not only in theory infinite but somehow circular: signifiers keep changing into signified and vice versa and you will never arrive at a final signified which is not a signifier in itself.”  Meaning is never completely present in any one sign but is dispersed along what the poststructuralists call an “endless chain” of signifiers. Moreover, since a sign has meaning only through its difference from other signs, it also carries with it “traces” of these other signs, however unconsciously. And because a sign may be used repeatedly, its meaning is never identical with itself but changes from context to context: as the context changes, so does the chain of signifiers of which it is a part.  The critical reader’s task is thus to open up the text or deconstruct it, rooting out the oppositional systems (binary, hierarchical oppositions) which underlie the text by what the poststructuralists call the “aporias” or impasses of meaning. It tries to show how the seemingly authoritative text undercuts itself and its own logic by teasing out the inconsistencies, contradictions, and conflicting assumptions that may be found therein.  Textual analysis may be seen as a threefold process which involves: 1) Reading – a decoding process based on the commonality of linguistic practice and cultural and historical information shared by writer and reader. It involves a basic comprehension of the text that make possible the other stages of the process. 2) Interpretation – consists of making inferences, drawing out assumptions and implications, and noting the contradictions or what has been left out or repressed. This is the primary activity in textual analysis and makes use of deconstructive principles and techniques. In gender analysis, particularly, it takes place within the historical context of power relations and gender oppression and may be motivated by the political interests of the interpreter and the group she represents. 3) Criticism – involves critiquing the value system and the cultural codes embodied in the text. * According to Scholes (1990), these three stages are not discrete or separate activities. With reading as the base activity, interpretation and criticism may take place simultaneously. 

Kintanar’s textual analysis of Hilarion Henares’ article, Sexual harassment and the mating game,

11 which appeared in the November 5, 1991 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Sexual Harassment and the Mating Game Now that St. Rina David condemned sexual harassment, citing the case of Guillerma Castanares who was forced to dance before Education officials in her underwear as condition for employment, let us, as devil’s advocate, explore the other side —“sexual harassment” as part of the mating game. What happened to Castanares is malicious mischief, obscenity, public scandal, abuse of authority and violation of the sanctity of her person, like pimping, woman-beating, mashing and rape. Any man who takes unconscionable advantage of a woman in need, should be boiled in Shell oil, and closeted with a faggot who is a cannibal. But the Anita Hill testimony at the confirmation hearings if newly appointed US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is something else. Anita Hill accused Thomas of “sexual harassment” more than ten years after it happened, depicting him as a boss who pestered her for dates, talked dirty and boasted about his skills as a lover. “Long John Silver” is a pun on Clarence Thomas as Long John Silver the love pirate, not Dong Puno as Long John Silver with silver bullets and a horse named Silver. What Clarence Thomas was supposed to have done is part of the mating game, and happens in every gathering of males and females. A male pesters a female for dates, even if refused by her, because the femaie is assumed to be coy, demure and playing hard to get. A male speaks the language of love, hinting of joys unbounded, and what may be a tempting offer to one woman may be an obscenity to another. A male known to be a skillful lover is attractive who competes to win what others want: such man should advertise his assets. Where to draw the line between acts of seduction and sexual harassment? There are no fixed rules. Most women say, “I may not want a man to succeed in getting what he wants, but I certainly feel flattered if he tried. I want to have to have the option to accept or reject.” Corito Fiel says she wants to be seduced against her will, so that she may enjoy it without feeling guilt, while her seducer will certainly roast in hell. Beautiful women who are continually harassed want to be seductive about who will harass them, encouraging Senators Orly Mercado and Butz Aquino, while accusing any man with acne, BO or bad breath of unwelcome sexual harassment. Ugly women, Carito Fiel points out, rarely get seduced, and so they insist on a system of handicapping, a set of rules that will impede the seduction of beautiful women, and equalize the odds. Ugly women are the majority in any female group, so they make the rules that make every working place devoid of love and affection, terrorized by “pitiless female inquisition.” American males are being neutered by uglies and dykes. Where to draw the line? My friend Pontororoy feels the battle line must be re-drawn all the time like a shifting no-man’s land, depending on battle conditions and on every pair of protagonists in the battle of the sexes. Good-looking cocks of the walk like Adrian Cristobal, Frank Chavez, Speedy Gonzales, and ahem, are practically dragged to the haystack to the haystack by women crying, “Don’t! Don’t! Don’t stop!” Anding Roces wears a T-shirt captioned, “No sex...please!” On the other hand, once casual glance from Jess Estanislao and Joey Cuisia constitutes an unforgivable indefensible harassment to most women. And a miniskirt will drive both of them bananas and up the wall. Vestal virgins like Julie Yap Daza who throws flowers to the moon, and Domini Suarez Torrevillas who “sleeps in Abraham’s bosom” (Richard III, Act IV, scene 3; Luke 16:22), can take it and dish it out, without being offended and embarassed. Virgin Corito Fiel would challenge the Dirty Old Man who propositioned her: “If you can beat me in a race up the stairs (of the Intercon), you can have me.” On the other hand, old-fashioned ladies (pareho sa imo, Inday) feel offended if a man so much as compliments them on their beauty or sexuality. In US jurisprudence there is the “stub-your-toe test” on sexual expletives. As Newsweek says, “If a male stubs his toe, he usually screams, “Oh fuck!” so that it is permissible and protected as free speech, but “Oh cunt!” is not the usual expletive and therefore is forbidden as sexual harassment contributing to hostile environment. The Hill-Thomas affair is greeted by women feminists in Europe with hoots and giggles as “proof of American hypocrisy, prudery and naivete,” with the battlecry, “Let’s keep seduction!” Filipino society has always been a matriarchy, with women engaged in BIg Business and represented in government more than women of the USA—a woman president, four Supreme Court Justices (US has only one), two senators out of 24 (in US, 2 out of 98). Our women realize that sexual harassment is a legitimate part of the mating game, by which women must first resist a man’s advance, then triumphantly block his retreat.

Discourse analysis  As a research method, discourse analysis comes from postmodernism or poststructuralism. It is then fair to say that discourse analysis cannot be seen as a standardized approach or method.  As interpreted by Sylvia Estrada-Claudio (1999), Foucault starts with the idea that power and knowledge are fused in arena which he calls discourse. He goes beyond the traditional idea that knowledgeable people can know the workings of the world and therefore move about in a way that helps them achieve their goals. For Foucault, individuals and institutions exercise power in a more profound way. Through claims to knowledge that as well as the institutional practices that derive from these claims, power is exercised in the way that dictates what is true, moral, good, pathological, and even what is “human.” Power and knowledge are fused together in

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broad areas of understanding and behavior that determine human nature. These broad areas are what Foucault called discursive fields. Doing discourse analysis involves looking at both text and context. It involves looking at the forms which are used to convey meanings or ideas (e.g., books, newspapers, etc.), the practices that surround these texts (e.g., publishing rules and regulations, academic hierarchies), the institutions which certify the validity of the knowledge claims made in these texts (e.g., the media, the schools, or an art museum) and the interaction of these various practices with other practices and institutions. Discourse analysis allows us to ask which kind of consciousness is being dictated to us by a particular text or a series of texts within particular institutions and practices. Discourse analysis of Henares’ article.

SPECIAL TOPICS HIV/AIDS and STDs Research  “Sakit sa babae” – Infections in women are often “silent,” making research and diagnosis more difficult and making women more vulnerable to the more serious consequences of STDs.  HIV/AIDS and STD prevention programs need contextualized research.  Contextualized research, relying on qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews and FGDs, explores people’s awareness of their sexuality and how this might relate to situations of risk. Emerging research on mid-life, aging, and older women  The “feminization of the aged population” emphasizes the following images of older women: - She is highly vulnerable and is most likely widow with no pension. - She shall continue her role as a caregiver to the young. - She most likely lives in the rural area. - Her health is generally poor because of treating it as secondary to her children’s and husband’s. - She does not have access to credit. - She may be active in religious activities.  Methods: 1) Intensive life histories – studies by Hale (1990) and Hurwich (1993) have debunked the stereotype of the older woman as an unpleasant person. 2) Ethnographies 3) FGDs – A 1992 UP Women’s Studies-sponsored FGD with urban menopausing women debunked the notion that menopause was supposed to be uncomfortable and unpleasant. 4) Examination of literary texts featuring older women – A rereading of a Toni Morrison’s female elderly characters showed two dominant images of women: givers of life and strategists of survival. 5) Friendships among older women – “a buffer and a triumph of solidarity and support” (Jacobs in Rosenthal, 1990) 6) Examination of how print and audio-visual mass media portray older women – some US studies: there’s a curious absence of images of people over 65 promoting or selling anything in the media; Philippines TV: older persons endorsing adult diapers and calcium-enriched milk 7) How religious women confront aging 8) Aging and sexuality – generally considered as taboo subject; postmenopausal years A woman’s stress  Department of Labor and Employment-sponsored stress management workshop for women managers revealed the following stressors: 1) The long hours of commuting from home to the workplace 2) The domestic chores that needed to be done before leaving for and upon returning from work 3) The children’s illnesses 4) Having to take care of their aging parents 

Women participants in other stress management seminar-workshops conducted by the UP

13 Center for Women’s Studies (1996-1997) revealed almost the same stressors with the addition of the following: 1) Marital problems, particularly the husband’s infidelity 2) Financial problems 3) Child rearing and parenting 4) Children’s academic performance 5) In-law problems 6) Relationship problems at work 7) Unsympathetic supervisors 8) Bearing responsibility for fertility regulation 9) Growing old (menopause) 10) Personal illness Adaptation Action Alteration Acceptance Awareness

Wellness Triangle

References Ancheta-Templa, M.F. (1999). The drama-forum: Generating data for policy formulation. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 225-236). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Aquino, C. (1999). Pagbabahagi ng kuwentong buhay: Isang panimulang pagtingin. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 67-96). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Canilao, N.P. (1999). Ethics in feminist research. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 23-50). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Canson, L.J. (1999). The community theatre as an alternative medium. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gendersensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 237-244). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Estrada-Claudio, S. (1999). Discourse analysis. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 259-268). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Gastardo-Conaco, M.C. (1999). The focus group discussion. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 215-224). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Guerrero, S. (1999). Broadening the concept of reproductive health and thinking feminist. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 3-14). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Guerrero-Manalo, S. (1999). Child sensitive interviewing: Pointers in interviewing child victims of abuse. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 195-204). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines.

14 Kintanar, T.B. (1999). Textual analysis. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 249-258). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Peñano-Ho, L. (1999). The counseling interview: Taking a feminist perspective. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 183188). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Perez, A.E. (1999). Surveys. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 107-116). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Sobritchea, C.I. (1999). Feminist ethnography. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 175-182). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines. Tan, M.L. (1999). Naturalism and sexuality research. In S. H. Guerrero (Ed.). Gender-sensitive and feminist methodologies: A handbook for health and social researchers (pp. 59-66). Quezon City: University Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines.

Julie Christine Mateo MA Media Studies (Film) Media 260 8 January 2009