The assumption that observation and data can be separated from theory (and values) and that the natural and the social world can be studied objectively is the core of the debate between mainstream and feminist research on wife abuse. All feminist critiques support in varying ways the contention that objectivity is the name men give to their own subjectivity. The methodological debates that arise are at the core of much of the debate in the field and especially the concept of scientific objectivity. The problems with unexamined positivism and claims of scientific objectivity are clear. It is the alternatives that remain murky. The necessary transformation that science and social science might undergo in response to feminist and other radical critiques occurs in small steps and requires more self-reflection and criticism of assumptions about knowledge, the issue of objectivity, relations with activists, and politics. 30 references