In “The Feminist Ethnographer’s Dilemma: Reconciling Progressive Research Agendas with Fieldwork Realities,” Orit Avishai, Lynne Gerber, and Jennifer Randles (2013a) make the case for engaging in what they call institutional reflexivity, which they characterize as critical reflection on established feminist knowledge, the institutional conditions under which feminist knowledge is produced, the ways it shapes theory and analysis, and the unspoken pressures it generates for feminist researchers’ work to contribute to broadly defined feminist goals of promoting social justice.(p. 397)

Arising out of ethnographic research in seemingly “conservative social spaces”(396), the authors argue that feminism’s dual commitments to political and analytic aims can pose barriers to valid research. I found aspects of their arguments and suggestions to be critically engaged and practically useful. I did not find them to be new, nor did I find their discussion to deal adequately with issues of power and inequality. In the pages that follow, I’ll