This reader suggests that returning to, and placing centre-stage, the role of philosophy, especially critical realist philosophy of science, is invaluable for efforts that seek to overcome or mitigate the uncertainty and acrimony which have characterised the discipline in recent years.

Making Waves, and Beyond Part I Philosophical Preliminaries: Critical Realism, Feminism, and Gender 1. Feminism, Realism, and Universalism 2. Post-structuralist and Constructivist Feminism 3. Sex and Gender: A Critical Realist Approach 4. A Defence of the Category 'Women' 5. Gender Theory Non-conforming: Critical Realist Feminism, Trans Politics, and Affordance Theory Part II Critical Realism and Intersectionality 6. Developing a Critical Realist Positional Approach to Intersectionality 7. Agency and Ontology within Intersectional Analysis: A Critical Realist Contribution 8. Why we keep Separating the 'Inseparable': Dialecticising Intersectionality Part III Methodology and Methods: Critical Realism and Empirical Research 9. The Reality of Gender (Ideology): Using Abduction and Retroduction in Applied Critical Realist Research 10. After Constructivism: Rethinking Feminist Security Studies through Interdisciplinary Research 11. Integrating Critical Realist and Feminist Methodologies: Ethical and Analytical Dilemmas 12. Critical Realist Discourse Analysis, Motherhood, and Gender: A Systematic Methodological Approach to Analysis Further Reading