Women and the

metaphor for silence

Chapter 4
Culture
• Plays a large part • Western male
determining masculine reasoning uses image
or feminine traits. related to visual seeing
and or illumination.
Women view of
knowledge *Listening is
more
representing
how other
people
specifically to
women view
knowledge .
DIFFERENCES IN WAYS OF
KNOWING
The main difference of men and women’s way of knowing
comes from upbringing and gender socialization.
• Universal caregiving – given to women in all societies
• Differences of men and women’s way of knowing:
• Women – had their mother’s as role models
• Learned through association and connectedness
• Learned through empathy
• Men - learned through disassociation with their mother’s
role
• Learned through the separation of the self from others
HOW WOMEN KNOW
Five perspectives as to how women learned about the
world and come to conclusions about truth.
1.)Women and Silence 2.)Received Knowledge
• The absence of thought or reflection
• Developed by absorbing
• Women who lives in silence are those
who are:
knowledge
• • disconnected from their families • Silence is valued yet not
• • lives in a secluded places internal
• • victims of abuse and violence • Words – imperative to
• Their knowledge comes from learning
authorities and focuses on survival.
• Women are able to do the
• No internal voice, no self-perception
and lack of an identity separate from
right thing by following rules
what is dictated to them. • Values authority and cannot
understand paradoxes
3.)Subjective Knowledge
Women who learned through subjective
knowledge:
• learn to trust their ‘inner voice and
infallible gut’
• depends on their selves and experience
to attain truth
• uses their intuition to decipher truth from
fiction
4.)Procedural Knowledge
Procedural knowers:
• learn through processes
• learned well from formal systems (e.g.,
education)
• learn the language of experts and apply this
to their own views
• focuses more on method and less on the
problem
• believes that each person views the world
differently and is entitled to his/her own opinion
• understanding – vital aspect of knowing
• learn through acquiring the knowledge of
others
5.)Constructed Knowledge
To obtain constructed knowledge women has to:
• have the ability to reflect on and accept
themselves
• learn to value their own methods of
knowing
• listen to their voice in the world that is
domained by male
• know that “knowledge is constructed and
the knower is an intimate part of the known.
• value real-talk which is the optimum
settings for the co-creation of knowledge
We must value ourselves and see ourselves as an
indispensable part of knowledge-creation, we can
become empowered, working toward an
improvement in our lives as well as in the lives of
others.”
Meaning of Differences in Knowing:
Gender Equality – Inclusion of women in all
aspects of society; all rights afforded to men must
be afforded to women.
Exclusion of
women to
disciplines
According to a study released
in Science, women are
underrepresented in academic
disciplines that place an
emphasis on “raw intellectual
talent,” as opposed to qualities
like work ethic.It is not
surprising, then, that the case
has resulted in a rare public
airing for issues that have been
an ongoing concern for women
in philosophy. But to what
extent does this sort of
publicity further the cause of
women in philosophy
Reporters:
Avie Sañado
Michelle San juan
(BSED ENGLISH 2-A)