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Miriam Catterall: University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, UK
Pauline Maclaran: The Queens University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Lorna Stevens: University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK
Feminist analyses of marketing
The work of feminist scholars tends to go beyond the description, explanation, or understanding of phenomena (Ozanne and Stern, 1993). Feminist theory and research incorporates the twin aims of social criticism and social change. Feminist scholars as social critics challenge existing knowledge within disciplines primarily by exposing this knowledge as gendered; it reflects a masculine perspective rather than a gender-neutral one. As advocates of social change, feminist scholars seek to redress this gender imbalance in academic knowledge and offer alternative theories and alternative means of creating knowledge.
Within the marketing literature feminist analyses of marketing are of comparatively recent origin. The first publications concentrated on presenting feminist thought to a marketing audience and exploring the possibilities for feminist perspectives in marketing and consumer research (Ozanne and Stern, 1993). However, this situation is changing rapidly as an increasing number of marketing researchers apply feminist perspectives to marketing phenomena, particularly within the field of consumer research (Costa, 1991, 1993, 1995). Among the first papers in the marketing literature to advocate feminist approaches were:
- Bristor, J.M. and Fischer, E. (1993), "Feminist thought: implications for consumer research", Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 19, March, pp. 518-36.
Penaloza, L. (1994), "Crossing boundaries/ crossing lines: a look at the nature of gender boundaries and their impact on marketing research", International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 11 No. 4,pp. 359-79.
These authors argue that theory and knowledge in marketing and consumer research are gendered in unrecognized ways. Bristor and Fischer maintain that consumer research has often misrepresented women. They present a challenge to the way gender-based knowledge is constructed and sustained in marketing and suggest that marketing and consumer researchers need to review their theories and methods. There are suggestions in both papers as to how this might be implemented. Penaloza recommends the use of participatory and dialogic methods to achieve a greater understanding of the consumer.
Hirschman, E.C. (1993), "Ideology in consumer research, 1980 and 1990: a Marxist and feminist critique", Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 19, March,pp. 537-55.
Hirschman examines the ideology articulated in articles...