His decision to use qualitative research in his dissertation proved a lonely journey. The Qualitative Family Network, started in 1985 with 15 interested readers, today has grown to over 300 subscribers. More presentations on qualitative research are now offered at the National Council of Family Relations. Students attend these presentations, return to their universities asking for more courses on qualitative research, and professors then have to decide if they will encourage or discourage these courses. The feminist perspective has helped increase the level of consciousness.
Some feminists are more likely to pick qualitative methods for ethical and idealogical reasons.
You mentioned The Qualitative Family Research Network. What Dr. LaRossa did was to point out between the discrepancy beween the acknowledgement of qualitative research's importance in the field and the infrequency of published articles in the Journal of Marriage and the Family . This discrepancy troubled the assembled participants, and fifteen of them signed up for future networking. That accepting spirit had carried over with the new editor, Jane Gilgun, Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and treasurer, Katherine Allen, Ph.D. at Virginia Tech University. Stage one was 'us against them', and stage two will include more disagreement.