Women's Ways of Knowing

I really enjoyed this book approach to how women think. I read this book for a class and I enjoyed it. I thought it gave relevant examples and had a unified message. The different application of experiences to psychology and epistemology has made this book a feminist classic.

Building on the work of previous psychologists interested in the study of the female mind, Mary Belenky and her colleagues have conducted interviews with a sample of 135 women enrolled in various teaching institutions (whether it be a university, community college, or some other institution such as a clinic to aid parents). The authors looked for patterns in the responses they received, and were able to draw together a concept of how women deal with knowledge. The small size of the sample of women interviewed may be looked upon by some as a weak point of the study, but there are some strong motives behind this conscious choice the authors made. Belenky and her colleagues wished to get to know each woman personally, and to conduct a full, comprehensive interview with each one so that they could provide examples to accompany their theories, rather than simply quizzing an overwhelmingly large study group and giving their supporting evidence only in the form of numbers and statistics. The authors have identified five different "ways of knowing" that women utilize. The first one addressed is given the name of silence. By "silence" the authors do not mean an absence of speech, but rather a state of being intellectually voiceless. They do not see themselves as beings capable of receiving or retaining knowledge, and are therefore subject to the control of those around them. The second way of knowing discussed is termed "received knowledge." Received knowers believe themselves able to learn from others, and even to pass on what they have learned, but they do not see themselves as capable of independent, original thought. The authors identify both silent women and received knowers as dualists. They see things in terms of black and white, right and wrong, and one of the two is always seen as superior to the other. "Subjective knowers" do realize that they have the ability to formulate knowledge for themselves, and rely on a strong inner voice with which they develop their thoughts. They believe all knowledge to be subjective, and every person's opinion to be equally valid, though applicable only to that person. In this sense, subjective knowers are multiplists rather than dualists. They recognize that there are shades of grey and that one answer to a problem may not be better than another. "Procedural knowers," which might also be called objective knowers, base their development of knowledge solely on objective, scientific procedures. They distrust as fallible any sort of "gut instinct" that the subjective knowers rely so heavily on. Procedural knowers are also multiplists, however, in that they recognize that there may be more than one "right" answer in a particular situation. This way of knowing is identified as more masculine, and that which tends to be advocated in traditional educational institutions. The last way of knowing is referred to as "constructed knowing." These women see all knowledge as contextual, and rely on both subjective and objec

Starting from the awareness that much of the way education (both formal and informal) is carried out in society is very male-dominated and the voice and experience of women is largely absent, Belenky and her co-authors make a case for examining ways of knowing and learning that is unique to women. The authors recognise early differences in studies that have included women as a primary or central focus, such as those of Carol Gilligan. One strong tendency of women's ways of knowing in these early studies is the presence of responsibility and connectedness that significantly exceeds those of men. After exploring different aspects of knowledge and how women come to acquire, use, produce, and disseminate this knowledge, the authors work to put these insights in context for the family and academia. The authors work largely in the area of developing for women a means of gaining a greater sense of self (also see Howard Gardner's section on personal intelligence in his book, Frames of Mind). This sense of self enables women to construct meaning for themselves, and find their own voices for both teaching and learning. Perhaps one criticism I would hold is that, while this work looks at women's experience, it still seems to remain very Euro-centric. I am reminded of the arguments of black women against feminist theological processes, which led to the development of womanist theological discourse. Recently I received an email from a friend with a link to an on-line quiz, which was attempting in a Turing-machine sort of way to be able to determine one's gender from the answers given to a set of questions. As I was taking the test, I thought about it in the context of women's ways of knowing and learning, and realised that this test was very objective, non-connected, largely non-feeling, and very masculine in approach. Certainly this test did not have the kind of objectivity called for in the text. 'Objectivity in connected teaching, as in connected knowing, means seeing the other, the student, in the student's own terms.' (p. 224) This test was seeing everyone in terms of a standard model, a model derived from male-dominant considerations. For the sake of liturgy and learning, which is my particular field of study, and the purpose behind reading this book, the kinds of issues raised here are important. The authors begin with the idea of silence. This is not a silence like monastic silence or the silence between prayers, hymns and readings, but rather a silence of voices from the shaping and practice of the community. Too often liturgy is viewed, by laity and clergy, as something handed to them from 'authority' with little or no room for adaptation or adjustment to context. When liturgical practice becomes this rigid or this 'unlistening', it can cease to have any many or validity for the community of worshippers. The authors also develop ideas of received, subjective and procedural knowledge, all of which can be used in liturgical practice. There can be, par

As a grad student exploring women and adult education, this book provided a great jumping off point!It does not compare and contrast male and female learning, which would suggest one is superior. Rather, it thoroughly explores different styles in which women acquire knowledge, and the value they place on learning. It also gives adult educators of women many ideas for enhancing the learning environment, whether single or mixed gender.I recommend Hayes & Flannery's Women as Learners as follow-up reading!

"Women's Ways of Knowing" is an outstanding book based on experiential studies and interviews of 130+ women in varying fields, roles, and capacities. It explores the different "voices" or lack thereof that women hide and/or exhibit. This book not only looks at how women "learn" in formal and informal settings yet it looks at the challenges that women face in a masculine-structured society and educational settings. I found this book to elicit varying emotions from anger to happiness to loneliness. I recommend this book for any woman who is trying to discover who she is, what she's about, and how she got there. I also recommend this book for men to, at the very least, contemplate from a factual standpoint the challenges and ambiguous positions that women face today and tomorrow.

The authors conducted 135 interviews to investigate the way women acquire and convey their knowledge of the world. They identify five epistemological categories, or "ways of knowing," intimately connected to women's experiences of authority. Generally, but not exclusively, they found, as did other researchers they cite, that women approach life from a position of relationship and connection to those around them, while men tend to operate from a position of separation and autonomy. This is a very important addition to the body of work on gender differences which demonstrate that women are finding their way in a world tailored to the masculine way of being.