Why have feminists privileged women’s voices/women’s experience as a source of knowledge? How is this problematic?

Name

University

Course

Tutor

Date

Introduction

Feminist epistemology is an outgrowth of both feminists theorizing about gender and traditional epistemological concerns . Feminist epistemology is a loosely organized approach to epistemology rather than a particular school or theory ( HYPERLINK "http /www .iep .utm .edu /f /fem-epis .htm http /www .iep .utm .edu /f /fem-epis .htm

Feminist epistemology studies the ways in which gender ought and does influence our conceptions of knowledge , practices of inquiry , the knowing subject and justification . It identifies ways in which dominant conceptions and

practices of knowledge attribution , acquisition and justification systematically disadvantage women and other subordinated groups and strive to reform these conceptions and practices so that they serve the interests of these groups . Various practitioners of feminist epistemology and philosophy of science argue that dominant knowledge practices disadvantage women by

Excluding them from inquiry

Denying them epistemic authority

Denigrating their feminine cognitive styles and modes of knowledge

Producing theories of women that represent them as inferior , deviant or significant only in the ways they serve male interests

Producing theories of social phenomena that renders women 's activities and interests , or gendered power relations , invisible

Producing knowledge that is not useful for people in subordinate positions , or that reinforces gender and other social hierarchies

Feminist epistemologists trace these failures to flawed conceptions of knowledge , knowers , objectivity , and scientific methodology . They offer diverse accounts to how to overcome these failures (http /plato .stanford .edu /entries /feminism-epistemology

Concepts

Stand point theory

Feminist standpoint epistemology initially developed in the social sciences , primarily in work by Nancy Hartsock (1998 ) in political science and by Dorothy Smith in sociology . As a methodology for the social sciences , it emphasizes the ways in which socially and political marginalized groups are in a position of epistemic privilege vis-a-vis social structures . Drawing on Hegal and Marx , feminist standpoint theories in the social sciences argue that those on the outside ' of dominant social and political groups must learn not only how to get along in their own world , but also how to get along in the dominant society . Thus , they have an outsider ' status with respect to dominant groups that allows them to see things about social structures and how they function that members of the dominant group cannot see . One comes to occupy the feminist standpoint by engaging in critical thought about one 's experience and its relationship to larger social and political structures ( HYPERLINK "http /www .iep .utm .edu /f /fem-epis .htm http /www .iep .utm .edu /f /fem-epis .htm

Differentiated knowers and standpoint theory

At the core of many feminist discussions of knowers is the idea that experiential differences lead to differences in perspective and these perspective differences carry epistemic consequences . Feminists who argue for the epistemic relevance of the identity of knowers are interested in forms of knowing for which it is questionable whether a differently located knower could have the same experience . To give an obvious example , sex-specific bodily experiences , such as knowing pain during childbirth , cannot be accessed by members of...