Women Researching in Africa

This edited collection explores the lives, consequences and motivations of female researchers in Africa, giving unprecedented insights into how their gender—and sometimes their ethnicity and age—impacted on their research experiences, and how doing research in Africa affected them as women. Each contributor considers her place or position in the research process and provides a vivid portrait of that experience. Drawing on research findings from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Uganda and other African countries, the book looks at gender and identity as a female researcher in Africa; relationships with 'others'; and unique methodological challenges for female researchers in Africa. With refreshing candour, each chapter challenges other researchers in Africa (both women and men), to integrate critical reflections of gender and diverse gendered field experiences into their work.

Women Researching in Africa will be of interest to studentsand scholars across a range of disciplines including development studies, anthropology, geography, gender studies and international studies.

• Research methods
• methodology
• ethics
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• feminism
• feminist anthropology

“This book undertakes a valuable, long-overdue exploration of how gender identity shapes research on Africa and on how knowledge is produced, how women experience ‘the field,’ and how their position as researchers shapes what we know about the region. It should spark important conversations among scholars of gender, Africa, and field researchers.” (Jeni Klugman, Georgetown University, USA and Harvard University, USA (former Director of Gender and Development at the World Bank)

“Women Researching in Africa calls on us to be reflexive about the gender, ethnicity, race and class identities of researchers as well as the power dynamics between researchers and their subjects. As the essays in this volume amply demonstrate, the identities of the researcher have implications for the research process and outcomes. This point of departure makes this volume a welcome addition to a shrinking literature on the methodological and ethical questions raised by research in Africa.”(Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana and President, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa)

• Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

  Ruth Jackson, Max Kelly

Ruth Jackson is Honorary Fellow at Deakin University, Australia.

Max Kelly is Senior Lecturer in International and Community Development Studies at Deakin University, Australia.

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