DEALING WITH DIFFICULT DIFFERENCES - REFLEXIVITY AND SOCIAL-CLASS IN FEMINIST RESEARCH

This article explores the impact of difference within the research pro cess. First, it looks at the difference my working-class history has m ade to the experience of conducting feminist research. Second, it exam ines how that class difference has affected both my relationships with the women that I interviewed and my reading of their accounts. Drawin g on both my own and the women's stories of growing up working class, I have attempted to map out some of the psychological complexities tha t are invariably overlooked in academic accounts of either the researc h process or working-class experiences of mothering and childhood. Fin ally, I have tried to pull out some of the threads still linking educa ted, working-class, feminist academics with their class backgrounds an d explore the fragility and strength of those connections in the light of my own social trajectory.