Women's
Ways of
Knowing
Pre-work for the Chapter
A student is graduating from college. In
her last semester, she was failing her
accounting class. In order to pass it, she
could get a cheat code from the class'
teaching assistant. She only had to
agree to go out on a date with him to
get it. She has a boyfriend, but she also
needs to pass in order to help her
parents pay for her diabetic mother's
medicines.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this chapter, the students should
be able to:
1. identify the women's ways of knowing;
2. explain why there are different ways of
knowing; and
3. discuss the implications of women's ways of
knowing.
Women and the
Metaphor for
Silence
The previous chapter discussed knowledge
and culture, and what it takes to help people
make sense of the world around them Through
these systems, people assign and give
meanings to the different phenomena they
experience. It was shown that femininity and
masculinity are not inherent but learned.
Culture plays a large part in determining what
are considered masculine or feminine traits.
Likewise, individuals in particular cultures
are taught to conform to these standards.
Thus, even a woman's way of
understanding the world is affected by
socialization. Women may address
problems differently or be less inclined
towards certain disciplines. They may also
be excluded from certain schools of
thought because of traits associated with
their gender.
This chapter will tackle women's ways of
knowing as identified by the book Women's
Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self.
Voice, and Mind by Mary Belenky, Blythe
McVicker Clinchy, Nancy Rule Goldberger, and
Jill Mattuck Tarule published in 1986. It will
also discuss the implications of the identified
ways of knowing in relation to the greater
societal context.
Western male reasoning
uses images that are
related to visuals, seeing,
or illumination to
represent knowledge.
Light as a representation
of knowledge stems from
Plato and his Allegory of
the Cave.
In the allegory, he
likened an enlightened
individual to a person
who leaves the cave and
is suddenly exposed to
the light of the sun,
which can be seen to
represent knowledge.
A study on women by institutions of
learning showed that listening is more
representative of their knowledge than
seeing." The stark difference between
women and men's ways of knowing
are illustrated in the work by Belenky
et al.
Women associate silence with
knowledge as they themselves
are often left unheard and silent.
In the study, silence and voice
were dominant themes for
women a person who had
knowledge and authority was
supposed to be listened to, but
women who spoke out were
silenced.
To be quiet was to feel
dumb, as the voice
had come to
represent one's
intellectual and
ethical development.
To have a voice was to
have a self; to have a
voice was to develop
a sense of voice.
Differences in Ways of
Knowing: Women and
Connectedness
Women and men have
different ways of knowing,
judgments, forms of human
development, values, and
visions of humanity and
existence. This book
assumes that the main
difference between men
and women comes from
upbringing and gender
socialization.
The role of universal caregiving in all
societies was given to women. Because of
this, girls learned to be women by copying
their mothers, and boys learned to be men
through a disassociation with their mother's
role. Because young girls had their mothers
as role models, they learned through
association and connectedness. Women
then learned through empathy. Men
learned through the separation of the self
from the other. These themes of
connectedness and separation will be used
in this chapter to describe women's ways of
knowing.
HOW WOMEN KNOW?
According to Belenky and
colleagues, women use
the following perspectives
to see the world and to
understand knowledge and
truth:
1. Silence
2. Received knowledge: listening to the
voices of others
3. Subjective knowledge: the inner voice
4. Subjective knowledge: the quest for self
5. Procedural knowledge: voice of reason
6. Procedural knowledge: separate and
connected knowing
7. Constructed knowledge: integrating the
voices
These perspectives comprise of five
categories (silence, knowledge,subjective
knowledge, procedural knowledge, and
constructed knowledge) which describe
the general ways women learn about
their world and come to conclusions
about truth.
