In 2004, the African Gender Institute ran the continental research project Mapping Sexualities. Among its objectives was the development of a research methodology for producing in-depth case studies of the dynamics of gender and contemporary sexual cultures in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda.

Jacketed Women is the result of that research. The chapters cover broadranging issues and include questions about what it means to research topics that are unpopular or fraught with the sense of the taboo that underpins much work in sexualities and gender studies. Overall, the diverse pieces within the collection offer the opportunity to see qualitative research not as the “poor cousin” of quantitative studies but as a zone which raises intellectual and political challenges.