From paper to clay: feminist methodology for tackling gender inequalities in Uruguayan rural unions

Abstract

In this article we share the design and preliminary results of the feminist research methodology developed in the project "Inequalities in the union participation of rural salaried workers in Uruguay: towards an organizational innovation" of the Universidad de la República. At the origin of this research we find a question posed by a union leader, "why women do not participate in rural unions?". From a structural reading of the inequalities of class and gender, product of the capitalist-patriarchal alliance, we set out to investigate the ways in which gender inequalities are built and perpetuated in rural union organizations. In coherence with this position, we proposed a feminist methodological approach to this research. The article is organized in three main moments. At first we share the research project. Subsequently we made a brief review of the literature on feminist epistemology and methodology that supports our approach. Finally, we share the implementation of the feminist methodological design, delving into two of the methods used: the feminist self-training of the research team and the interpretive focus groups. Finally, we discuss some of the preliminary conclusions regarding the implementation of a feminist methodological design.