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Embodied Researchers: Gendered Bodies, Research Activity, and Pregnancy in the Field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2009

Candice D. Ortbals
Affiliation:
Pepperdine University
Meg E. Rincker
Affiliation:
Purdue University Calumet

Extract

Kathleen B. Jones, in her now famous essay about women-friendly polities, explains that that citizenship must be redefined to include a body that does not “easily fit military-corporate uniforms” (1990, 794). Jones calls theorists to recognize women's “embodied lives,” and in doing so, considers how “women's bodies are problematic” and “sex/gendered identity affects … life” (786). We argue here that recognizing women's embodied lives is similarly important to a discussion of gender and fieldwork. As researchers in the field, we have been defined by our social position as women, thus putting us at distinct disadvantages and advantages (Sundberg 2003).

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 2009

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