Thematic Analysis as a Qualitative Method in Feminist Studies

Abstract

The article is devoted to the description of feminist methodology and qualitative method of thematic analysis. The relevance of the feminist methodology of research as an alternative in the study of women’s experience, gender experience of the personality is revealed. In this article, I argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically-flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. Feminist researchers justify the need to apply qualitative research methods to the research practice needs. The goal is to justify the thematic analysis use as a qualitative method for individual gender experience study. Female experience was interpreted by feminists as heterogeneous and plural one. It includes three dimensions: 1) experience is specific for women unlike men; 2) the experience of women members who belong to the movement against discrimination based on sex; 3) the experience of women who belong to the second wave generation of the feminist movement.Thematic analysis is widely-used qualitative analytic method within psychology. Thematic analysis is widely used, but there is no clear agreement about what thematic analysis is and how you go about doing it. I briefly describe how to use thematic analysis in psychology. Thematic analysis involves a number of choices which are often not made explicit (or are certainly typically not discussed in the method section of papers), but which need explicitly to be considered and discussed.The technology of thematic analysis in the research of gender schemes of the experience of men and women is presented. The main stages of application of thematic analysis in the study of the gender experience of the personality are described. I outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis.