Abstract:
The objective of this paper is to examine the construction / application of epistemologies
in Sri Lankan research on women, gender and feminism. Despite the understanding that
research content and methodologies are not neutral or independent of research
contexts, researchers in the Social Sciences as well as Sciences are still to pay
sufficient attention to methodological implications / assumptions of methods, ontology,
epistemology, theory, and politics within research processes. By focusing on these
facets of research methodology, this paper strives to provide insights into the discipline
of Women's / Gender Studies, and methodological issues for fellow researchers to
engage with in their work.
The paper looks at feminist research studies in the Sri Lankan context of the past 30
years - ever since the proliferation of women's research in the country following the UN
International Year of Women in 1975. Based on the theoretical understandings of
feminist globalism, postcolonial feminism, liberal feminism, Marxist feminism, feminist
standpoint epistemologies, and gender mainstreaming, the paper focuses on research
studies from a methodological perspective. It is supported by a literature survey of Sri
Lankan feminist research and interviews with feminist bibliographer/researchers, as well
as an examination of selected research studies.
The paper concludes that feminist epistemologies in Sri Lankan research are
symbiotically linked to the ontological politics of the research context.
