With Just Methods, Alison M. Jaggar has produced an excellent and up-to-date reader on feminist methodology. Methodology, the questioning and theorizing of method in academic research, is an ever important field of study. This applies perhaps especially to feminist scholarship where we must continually debate, question and redefine our positions. The interdisciplinary approach of the reader is crucial, since methodologies in different disciplines and areas of research overlap and interact. Areas counted as part of the humanities or the sciences (the ‘two cultures’ of C. P. Snow’s 1959 classic text) often share research methods. An interdisciplinary approach to feminist methodology also illustrates how sexist and other biases have affected several disciplines in various fields, and how certain knowledge produced has been used to justify social inequalities.

Just Methods is divided into two parts. The first part provides a historical basis, outlining various strands of feminist critiques of methodology since the 1960s. The second part presents new feminist modes of thinking and formulating just feminist methodologies, by assessing different knowledge-generating strategies for feminist research. The two parts each contain various sections concentrating on, in part one, a certain academic field (humanities, social sciences, economics, human biology, health sciences, and feminist studies) or, in part two, new approaches to, and schools of, feminist methodology (feminist naturalism and empiricism, standpoint theory, and postmodern feminism). Part two concludes with discussions on how to democratize and imply feminist ethics in research. Each section contains three texts, which are introduced by Jaggar. Her introductory pieces are invaluable, as they contextualize the concepts and selected texts, and provide insightful analysis on the way. The selection of texts is well-balanced and reaches across various disciplines and fields, containing extracts by scholars both more and less well-known to me. Together they demonstrate the inseparability of concepts such as gender, class, race, and other factors, in feminist analysis. There is no value-neutral or objective science, but power structures, gender structures, research, and the production of knowledge are inextricably linked. The focus of the collection is on the 1960s onwards, and mainly on North American authors. However, it also engages with concepts and debates from other parts of the world.

The first part of the book is especially strong. As a scholar working in the humanities, I was surprised to find the economics section to be the most engaging. Here the intersectional focus clearly comes through. In particular Diana Strassman’s text, on the supposed neutrality of economic theory, is absolutely enthralling. Tying together issues of gender, class, race, and other factors, she skilfully depicts how the market – often claimed to be efficient, free, and fair – is in no way objective. As Jaggar writes in her introduction to the section, there are gender biases built into economic theory and method (71). Economic ‘facts’ are never just ‘facts.’ The second part of the book is at times weak. The introduction to the section on postmodern feminism is rather one-sided, but the selected texts (in particular the excellent essay co-authored by Nancy Fraser and Linda J. Nicholson) more than make up for this. Furthermore, although aiming to be intersectional, questions of sexuality are surprisingly scarce. Except for Jennifer Terry’s text on lesbians as medical subjects during history, and Bette S. Tallen’s text on the exclusion of lesbians in feminist political theory, there is literally nothing. Queer theory, which during the last decades has come to take such a prominent place in feminist theory and methodology, is only mentioned twice in the book.

Despite these omissions, Just Methods deserves to be a well-sought after collection. Its wide range of texts by scholars from various disciplines, coupled with Jaggar’s introductory pieces, makes it useful and accessible for feminists and scholars across all fields. Jaggar ends the first part of the book by looking forward and sketching tasks for feminists today: “feminist research must become not only increasingly transnational but also increasingly collaborative. Scholars and activists in a variety of disciplinary and geographical locations must learn how to engage with and build on each other’s research, recognizing their shared responsibility for producing knowledge useful in moving toward global gender justice.” (197) Feminists today must work globally and across disciplinary boundaries, as Jaggar’s excellent collection fully demonstrates. All in all, this is an inspiring and quite marvellous book. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in gender, feminist and political theory, and it ought to be read by researchers across all fields.

Lena Wanggren, University of Edinburgh