Critical Feminist Epidemiology in Action: Reflections from a Multidisciplinary Partnership Between Mujeres Unidas y Activas and Academic Researchers

Critical feminist research addresses social inequities, encourages equitable partnerships between researchers and participants, and acknowledges that research can be inherently political. Building upon critical feminist research practices, community-based participatory research, and social and structural epidemiology, we propose the approach of critical feminist epidemiology. A critical feminist epidemiology approach can study community and population health inequities with an eye towards identifying interventions that reduce inequities, through research processes that center the lived experiences of people from minoritized genders. We describe how our interdisciplinary, community-led team used a critical feminist epidemiology approach for an applied public health research project. Mujeres Unidas y Activas, a community organizing non-profit led by and for Latina and Indigenous immigrant women, partnered with academic researchers to conduct community-led research around how their approach to building community power affected the health and wellbeing of organization members and their families. Critical feminist epidemiology is a promising approach for conducting research that is grounded in and relevant to the lives of women and gender expansive people. Building upon social epidemiology and community-based participatory research, critical feminist epidemiology can be a useful research approach to generate novel evidence to inform action towards health equity for communities and populations.