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Good proposal 1 - How do disabled women construct femininity
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Good proposal 1 - How do disabled women construct femininity
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Sample Qualitative Research ProposalDraft Research Proposal for masters dissertation
Research question:
- How do disabled women construct femininity?
Research aims:
- To explore disabled women’s experiences of femininity
- To examine disabled women’s views, lived experiences, thought and
feelings about how disability and gender intersect
Context and Background:
There has been an emphasis on representations of normative femininity and
how disability has been excluded. Disabled women are not well represented
in mainstream feminist scholarship (Sheldon 1999) or in intersectional feminist
theory. Similarly, disabled women experience marginalisation and
disadvantage due to the intersections of gender and disablement. As such,
disabled women have been subject to legacies of being excluded from
normative constructions of ‘femininity’. This project will focus on how disabled
women themselves view and experience femininity. Slater states how there is
space for disability to subvert the performance of femininity (2018). Similarly,
beauty ideals have been researched in how disabled women find themselves
not conforming to the western beauty ideals. Sexuality has also been heavily
discussed in terms of those with a mental impairment and how they have
often been de-sexualised (Sanders, 2010). I wish to add to the existing
literature by offering an approach from the perspective of disabled women and
offer new empirical research on the day to day experience of femininity which
will be important in illuminating how our cultural perception of ’normative’
affects disabled women.
However, I want to explore femininity as an embodiment of the expectations
placed on women to ‘fulfill the feminine role’. This is partly aesthetically as
, Sample Qualitative Research Proposal
beauty ideals, but also intangible expectations, roles, and behaviour. I think it
is important to see how disabled women experience femininity in its full sense
of the word. Similarly, this age group of millennials, experience much more
attention to the women’s cause and knowledge of the pressures women face
and the damaging effect it can have on women. I would like to see if this
knowledge simply makes disabled women more aware of the pressure or
whether they use it to destabilize the stereotype in an attempt to undermine
this ‘norm’.
Similarly, I will concentrate on the societal pressures that are growing and
how this creation of idealistic normative femininity is not only unrealistic for
able bodied women but for disabled women, it can sometimes be impossibly
attained. I will further explore how this cultural image of femininity only
incorporated able-bodied women, ‘Objectified bodies are not naturally but
socially produced, reproduced and culturally inscribed. I will explore the
meaning and definition normative idea of femininity including Butler’s work on
gender performativity, as well as asking the participants what femininity
means to them. Women as objects of desire must be a 'perfect' whole of
eroticised parts’ (Nisha, 2011). Hence, I will bring in Crenshaw’s theory of
intersectionality as I focus on the double discrimination faced by disabled
girls.
Methodology:
I will be utilizing feminist methodological approaches in line with the
epistemological and ontological position taken in this research. As disabled
women are an oppressed and marginalized group, a feminist epistemology
and methodology will allow the power inequities and issues of gender
inequality to be at the forefront of the project and the analysis. I will aim to
interview participants using semi-structured interviews to achieve more valid
and candid results. Semi-structured interviews are well suited to a feminist
epistemology and methodology because they allow women to guide the
interviews and to talk about topics not included in the topic guide, whilst also
allowing the researcher to guide the interview and use prompts to probe ideas
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