Feminist epistemology

Feminist epistemology

Feminist epistemology is concerned with the way "in which gender does and ought to influence our conceptions of knowledge, the knowing subject, and practices of inquiry and justification" [Anderson, Elizabeth, "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)] , and comes under the umbrella of social epistemology - a broad set of approaches to the study of knowledge.

Anderson argues that central to feminist epistemology is the concept of the situated knower and hence, situated knowledge. Donna Haraway (1998) makes the point that most knowledge, in particular academic knowledge is always situated and "produced by positioned actors working in/between all kinds of locations, working up/on/through all kinds of research relation(ships)" (Cook, "et al".) [Ian Cook, 'Positionality/Situated Knowledge' for David Sibley "et al" (eds)"Critical Concepts in Cultural Geography". London, IB: Taurus http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/downloads/gesdraftpapers/iancook-situatedknowledge.pdf] , and thus what is known and the ways in which this knowledge can be known is subject to the positionally - the situation and perspective - of the knower.

Feminist epistemology consists of the following:

(1) Feminist empiricism: obtaining knowledge on the experiences of women. They are asked questions on issues such as gender inequality.

(2) Feminist standpoint theory: knowledge should be looked at from the standpoint of women; their experiences are taken into account. This theory is linked to Marxist ideology as it looks at those who are oppressed in society. With Marxism, those being oppressed (the working-class)have knowledge that the ruling-class do not. This is related to the standpoint theory as women have knowledge that the men are unaware of.

(3) Postmodern feminism: take a look at the causes of inequalities and differences between men and women. Criticise the structure of society and postmodern feminists say terms such as 'oppressed' actually encourage patriarchy even more.

Isma M

References

External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-epistemology/] 'Positionality/Situated Knowledge', by Ian Cook (PDF) [http://www.gees.bham.ac.uk/downloads/gesdraftpapers/iancook-situatedknowledge.pdf]


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