Lengel argues when scrutinizing feminist ethnography (229) it is imperative to structure the ethnography within historical framework as well as modern developments surrounding analysis and the self reflexivity. She suggests there is a need to examine feminist ethnography holistically through theories, methods, epistemologies, and politics. Feminist ethnographers have challenged the presumed characteristics of traditional ethnography; while also attempting to create new methods that question power dynamics assumed in relation of the self and other. Ethnographers are innately self-reflexive and they need to challenge how the construction of the other in a way which in manifested in the power relations in first and third world contexts.
Lengel discusses how in any interaction between first and third world nations are always inflicted with some degree of colonialism and dominance. Feminist ethnographers practice ethnography under the preconceived notion that their view is one standpoint amongst countless others. Traditional ethnographers challenge feminist practices by presuming the third world women are unable to solve their own problems and they need first world women to do it for them. On the other hand, feminist ethnographers believe that they comprehend how gender and race are positioned in relation to people around the globe. Ethnographers must be able to adopt feminist practices and should be able to predict who the objects are and subjects of study, also listen to women’s lived experiences in their own words, rather than subjecting them to objects of silence. Instead of transforming the other, researchers along with third world women need to create a transformative space for these women. The researcher should spend more time transforming their own space before moving on to the ‘imagined oppressed, subservient other’ (248).
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