FemQuant

FemQuant: Bringing together feminist research and quantitative methods

CPC researcher Dr Heini Väisänen is one of the coordinators of FemQuant, a network of researchers across the social sciences, along with the co-founders Dr Rose Cook and Dr Jenny Chanfreau, as well as Dr Sara Rose Taylor and Ms Youngcho Lee.

The goal of the FemQuant network is to explore the ways in which researchers are using feminist theory and motivations in current quantitative, empirical research across the social sciences, including sociology, economics, demography, social policy, psychology, health, and international relations. The network is a collaborative and supportive space where the difficulties, tensions and complexities inherent in combining feminism and quantitative methods can be explored and debated.

The network produces blogs, reading lists, and hosts events including a monthly webinar series. They welcome blog post submissions on feminist or gender-related research using quantitative research methods. They are also hosting a one-day virtual conference (via Zoom) on 6 September 2021, inviting researchers to discuss and debate the possibilities of a feminist quantitative social science, and to learn from each other’s successes and difficulties in integrating feminist theory with quantitative methods. In particular, they would like to problematise how much of current quantitative research tends to operationalise ‘gender’ as a binary variable with male and female representing fixed and oppositional classification. Please visit the FemQuant website for registration details.

Dr Väisänen is well placed to act as coordinator of the network; her research focuses on sexual and reproductive health and rights in different parts of the world. She is affiliated with the fertility and family strand of CPC. She works as a researcher at the Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques (INED, France), and as a part-time Lecturer in Social Statistics and Demography within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton. One of her research projects focuses on the link between health literacy and safe use of misoprostol for abortion in Nigeria. The study explores whether health literacy was associated with being able to use misoprostol to end a pregnancy safely and successfully in Lagos state, Nigeria, where abortions are legally only allowed to save a woman’s life. The findings were recently published in the journal ‘Studies in Family Planning’ and on the FemQuant blog.

In June, she was awarded the BSPS Early Career award 2021 and will give a plenary as the winner at the upcoming BSPS conference in September.

Register for FemQuant events through the Eventbrite page or keep in touch by joining the FemQuant mailing list and following their account on Twitter and the hashtag: #FemQuantSeminar.