Building theory and making change: The challenges of studying feminist activism

Abstract

For the last twenty years, my research has focused on the ways that legal, medical, and community organizations respond to sexual violence in the United States. This research has been informed and, I believe, enriched by my work in local organizations that provide supportive services to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and to those seeking access to abortion. When I arrived at Rutgers for graduate school, I was surprised and frustrated at how few of the stories I heard as a service provider had made their way into the academic discussions about feminism, feminist movements, and feminist organizations that I encountered in the political science literature. © 2013 The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association.