Feminism and Discourse in Developmental Psychology: Power, Subjectivity and Interpretation

The meeting of feminism with post-structuralism has brought issues of multiplicity of meanings to the fore. However, attention to difference threatens to disperse politics. This paper explores how these issues are played out in developmental psychological research. The concerns of feminist research with issues of reciprocity, consultation and accountability challenge developmental research conducted within the structural power relations of adult-child, experimenter-subject encounters. Equally, the feminist project of social transformation both draws upon and renders problematic developmental psychology. Drawing on examples from my interviews with children, I argue that attending to the power relations that are conferred by structural research practices and subject positions set up within discourse not only highlights previously unacknowledged diversity of meaning, but also closes off total interpretive relativism. What we need is a feminist realism that does not resort to positivism, that ties discourse to politics, and that makes politics more than discursive.