Feeling Like Feminist Frauds: Theorizing Feminist Accountability in Feminist Family Studies Research in a Neoliberal, Postfeminist Context

In this article we name "feelings of fraudulence," the experience of self-awareness and self-questioning that feminist family scholars often encounter in their work. We propose that such feelings arise from attempting to apply abstract feminist principles to specific research practices against the backdrop of social science's positivism, women's studies postmodernism(s), and an overlay of neoliberalism and postfeminism. These feelings of fraudulence should not be dismissed but should be embraced to promote what we theorize as feminist accountability. Using our research projects as sites of analysis, we share dilemmas of accountability in regard to feminist epistemology, agenda, and ethics within the contemporary context. We continue the conversation about feminist-informed methodological practices and hope to offer other feminist family scholars comfort in responding to the uncertainty they encounter in their own feminist research journeys.