Feminism Counts ─ Quantitative Methods and Researching Gender

This is an important and timely text that provides a unique overview of contemporary quantitative approaches to gender research. The contributors are internationally recognised researchers from the UK, USA and Sweden who occupy a range of disciplinary locations, including historical demography, sociology and policy studies. Their research includes explorations of heterosexual and same sex violence, media responses to feminist research, data sources for the study of equalities, approaches for analysing global and local demographic change and intersectional concerns in respect of work and employment.

Through detailed, sophisticated and thoughtful considerations of the place of quantification within gender studies, and the place of feminist approaches to quantification, each contributor overturns the stereotype that quantitative research is antithetical to feminism by demonstrating its importance for challenging continuing global inequalities associated with gendered outcomes. An introductory chapter illustrates the significance of geography and discipline in the take-up of methodological preferences.

Feminism Counts: Quantitative Methods and Researching Gender makes an important contribution to the ways in which feminists respond to contemporary methodological and interdisciplinary challenges, and is essential reading for all research students in gender studies.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

Christina Hughes is Chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Warwick, UK. She has longstanding interests in feminist research methodologies and feminist theory, and is founding co-chair of the Gender and Education Association.

Rachel Lara Cohen is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, UK. She uses a mixed methods approach to study work and employment and is interested in the use and teaching of research methods.