The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena
In the book Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena, the book’s author focuses on the political grid, which expands the different constituencies and does various things. The book uses an ethical research methodology to address women’s unequal position, not just competing against their male counterparts and each other and less powerful men. The book addresses women’s formal access to the political arena, which can be explained by the connection they have to powerful men and how network matronage operates with an assumption of male equivalence compared to the other political environments around the world (Bedi 2016). It uses the respondents’ opinion on feminism and political career to draw data who are the sampled women in Shiv Sena. This paper reviews the research ethics used in the book Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena by Tarini Bedi.
The author of the book Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena applied the principles of ethical research while writing the book by addressing several critical elements of ethical research, including informed consent and power of the community’s subjects. According to the researcher, informed consent was a significant part of their methodology. It involved ensuring that the research participants were completely aware of what the research entailed and gave their consent to participate in the research. The research also considered power as an essential aspect of ethical research while carrying out the research. It involved considering how the subjects relate with the rest of the community, their position in the community, their clans, education, and their status in the community (Desai & Potter 2006). These elements were able to give a clear insight into the gender and feminism as described in ‘Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena.’
The methodology used to address the ethical research in the book Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena has several strengths. The methodology aided in obtaining primary data from the subjects in the study in an ethical procedure. Apart from that, the methodology helped get the subjects’ opinions without affecting their relations in the community. The data obtained through the methodology gave a lot of insight into gender inequality, which enabled several of the authors to come up with several conclusions considering gender and feminism. According to the book, the data that was collected for the study was not bias based on gender and feminism. It focused more on showing the female generation power in the political environment, rather than proving that the female gender is better than the other gender. The book argues that ethnographic inquiry into influence, authority, and resources where women focus on offering support to male and female constituents (Hammersley & Atkinson 2007). Hence, this framework encourages the reader to think of matronage as a unique category in modern studies of women in the political world which portrays ethical based research.
The limitation of the framework fails to address some of the factors of ethical research. One of the critical factors that the author failed to address in the methodology is funding and funders. The methodology did not view of the research sponsor. If the research conclusions are not in line with the expectation of the research sponsor, the sponsor might withdraw funding for future research. Funders play a significant role in research since, without capital, the research cannot be conducted. Therefore the sponsors’ expectations should be addressed in the research methodology and addressed in the methodology. To improve the research methodology, the author needs to consider addressing the expectations of the funder of the research.
In conclusion, the book focuses on bringing out gender and feminism in the political arena. Women play a significant role in the political arena even though the more priority is given to masculinity. The methodology used by the author in the book covers most of the critical factors of ethical research, which include informed consent by the subjects as well as the consideration of the power and position they hold in the society. The author can improve the research quality by addressing critical parts of the methodology, such as the expectation of the sponsors of the research. Therefore, the author of the book considered ethical research in the methodology to collect data, hence addressing gender and feminism.
References
Bedi, Tarini (2016). The dashing ladies of Shiv Sena. Political patronage in urbanizing India. SUNY Press.
Desai, Vandana, and Potter, Robert B, 2006: Doing development research.
Hammersley, Martyn, and Atkinson, Paul (2007): Ethnography. Routledge.