The Debate of Minimizing Subjectivity in Gender Studies: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

The social sciences have always been contested on the philosophical and ethical grounds of producing scientific knowledge. Similarly, the standpoints of Gender studies are analytically linked to certain domains of reasoning for human behavior. It discusses social phenomena from a societal and cultural perspective, which raises questions for the scholars of this subject about the application of particular procedures for understanding realities guided by some ideologies (Söderlund & Madison, 2017). This article critically evaluates the theoretical debate on ways of upholding the objectivity in this discipline by minimizing the role of subjectivity in the construction of new knowledge. It is concluded that by adopting techniques such as bracketing, triangulation, reflexivity and various other theoretical stands mentioned by scholars, feminists, and social scientists, the struggle of producing objective systematic knowledge can be promoted in gender studies and other social sciences.

Social Work Education: Reevaluating Undergraduate Quality Assurance in the Social Work Unit, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone

“…A particular concern is the consistency and equity of appraisal ratings, which may be distorted by gender, ethnicity and the ratings of appraisers themselves. Studies have highlighted subjectivity in terms of gender (Nadeem, 2019;Soderlund and Madison, 2017) and ethnicity of the appraisee and appraiser (Chong, 2011). Suggestions and solutions for resolving bias will be reviewed later.…”