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Choice of method entails powerful, unavoidable consequences as related to the production of knowledge (Walby, 2001). Since – to many researchers – social science research is a social interaction which cannot be separated from its context (Lal, 1996), questions of knowledge production have been connected to calls for methodological choices to be made with a keen awareness of the study’s social, political and historical setting (Stack, 1996). The challenges of these settings represent issues being faced by the entire social research community (Ramazanoglu and Holland, 2002). However, Letherby (2004) goes so far as to centralize within feminist research the choice of appropriate method in combination with implications of power relations between researcher and participant.

Bochner (2001, p. 135) asserts that, with regard to ‘realms of lived experience’ housing the production of knowledge, academia is merely one among many. One of the key ways feminism addresses power relations in knowledge production is through the recognition of women’s experiences as a ‘legitimate form and source of knowledge’ (Pini, 2003a). This opens an avenue for exploring not only the individual women’s lives, but other lives that may also inform the individual’s experience. Thus, honouring the value of individual life experiences may allow the researcher to extrapolate insights to the larger social milieu and provide a means of working towards social change (Rosenberg and Howard, 2008). Because women’s life experiences formed the foundation of this study, a feminist viewpoint seemed the logical choice in methodology.