Lesson 4: Women’s

Ways of Knowing

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Prepared by: Ms. Czarina Mae C. Legaspi
 Learning objectives
Identify the women’s ways of Explain why there are Discuss the implications of
knowing different ways of knowing women’s ways of knowing

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 How Women Know
According to Belenky and colleagues, women use the following
perspectives to see the world and to understand knowledge and truth
✘ Silence
✘ Received Knowledge: listening to the voice of others
✘ Subjective Knowledge: the inner voice
✘ Subjective Knowledge: the quest for self
✘ Procedural Knowledge: voice of reason
✘ Procedural Knowledge: separate and connected knowing
✘ Constructed Knowledge: integrating the voices
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Women’s Ways of Knowing

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Prepared by: Ms. Czarina Mae C. Legaspi
 Women and Silence
Silence indicates an absence of thought
or reflection. Women who live in silence
are often disconnected from their
families and communities due to their
situation which brings about the lack of
space for constructive thought. Women
who learn through silence lack the
ability to understand abstract thought.
They do not enjoy introspection.

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 Received Knowledge: Listening
to the Voice of Others
Developed by absorbing knowledge (like a sponge).
Women who learn through receiving knowledge
listen to friends and authorities (community leaders
and/or their husbands), and understand what is
being said enough for them to repeat words. They
are able to do the right thing by following rules of
authority figures, but they lack the ability to
comprehend paradoxes (if two or more of her
authority figures have contradicting information, she
cannot distinguish which is correct).

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 Subjective Knowledge: The Inner
Voice and the Quest for Self
Women learn to trust their “inner
voice and infallible gut.” Women who learn
through this are those who have awakened
to the previous abuses they have suffered.
They realized that following rules will not
make them happy. They depend on their
selves and their experience to attain truth
(use of intuition).

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Prepared by: Ms. Czarina Mae C. Legaspi
Procedural Knowledge: Voice of Reason and
Separate and Connected Knowing
Women who learn through
process, and they learned well from
formal systems of knowledge,
enough for them to excel. They learn
to defend their beliefs and rationalize
their thoughts, and they focus on the
method more, and less on the
problem.

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Constructed Knowledge: Integrating the Voices
Women need the ability to
reflect on and accept themselves.
Women must learn to value their own
methods of knowing and their own
constructed knowledge. They must
turn inward.

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Prepared by: Ms. Czarina Mae C. Legaspi
THANKS!
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