Feminist epistemology: definition, authors and basic principles

Feminist Epistemology is a term that refers to some breaks with the traditional ways of making scientific knowledge, arguing that it is not possible to make a generalized theory that ignores the context of the subjects who develop them.

Next we will review some of the characteristics of feminist epistemology, its antecedents and the contributions it has had in the social sciences.

What is Epistemology?

To begin, let's briefly define epistemology and how it participates in our way of knowing the world. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, that is, it studies the principles, foundations and conditions that have led to knowledge being built in a specific way.

Epistemology analyzes the nature and purposes of knowledge, therefore it has to do with how the questions that shape a scientific investigation and its possible results.

When we speak, for example, of "epistemological paradigms" we refer to the philosophical and methodological models that underlie scientific practice (models are made by someone, that have resulted from human activity in relation to numerous social, historical, political, economic events) and that have marked our understanding of the world.

Feminist epistemology: another way of knowing

Feminist Epistemology defends that the subject of knowledge is not an abstraction with universal faculties not contaminated by sensible experiences; rather, he is a particular historical subject, who has a body, interests, and emotions that inevitably influence his rational thinking and the knowledge he builds.

In other words, it arises in response to the "disembodied" scientific tradition (disembodied because it has been presented as neutral and impartial, as if it were not made by a person) that has developed from the experiences and worldview of a specific character: a man, white, heterosxual, western, upper-class.

We can say that feminism put a body to traditional science, thereby opening another possibility of making and validating scientific knowledge, that is, a new epistemological current.

In other words; he placed knowledge in concrete places (bodies) where they are produced, arguing that all knowledge is situated; that is, it is produced by a subject in a particular historical, temporal, social, political situation; thus, the methods to justify or validate this knowledge are also contextual.

Hence also arises the connection between knowledge and power, as well as the responsibility of the knowledge that is produced and the ethical and political commitment, something which is constituted as one of the main characteristics of Feminist Epistemology and which had been kept hidden in much of science traditional.

Thus, what feminism has brought to traditional Feminist Epistemology is a new way of understand both the subject that produces knowledge and the product itself, that is, knowledge scientific. In other words, it inaugurates other ways of knowing.

Background and breaks with modern science

Feminist epistemology emerges specifically since the feminist movements they put the multiplicity of ways of knowing at the center of epistemological debates; arguing that due to the great diversity of identities that are built in modern societies, there is no total knowledge about reality, but only partial knowledge.

This has happened through a gradual process, the development of which has taken place especially during the 20th century. Sara Velasco (2009) tells us that Feminist Epistemology originated from the recognition of two aspects that traditional epistemology had ignored: the existence of the sexes, and the power-subordination norms that establish their relations.

What Feminist Epistemology observes is that most of the research done in modern science has been characterized by notable omissions, which are hidden under the premise of universality and the dream of neutral knowledge.

One of those omissions is that modern science has been carried out by a part of humanity, which are mostly white and middle-class men.. The other important omission is that reason has been constituted on the experience ignoring the performance of that experience and of the individual human psyche in the construction of knowledge.

In other words, feminists denounce and question the sexism and androcentrism of traditional science, so their research questions are framed in the same vein. It connects with critical epistemologies by not positioning itself from the neutrality of the researcher and scientific knowledge, showing that the subject who investigates input biases research questions, hypotheses, analyzes and results, precisely because it is a subject (that is, by definition it is not an object).

What questions does Feminist Epistemology ask?

Epistemology has to do with how the questions of scientific research and its objectives have been asked, which in turn has caused certain knowledge to be produced.

Velasco (2009) synthesizes some of the objectives of Feminist Epistemology from the following general objective: Reveal and question the binary logics of man-woman, feminine-masculine, active-passive, public-private, rational-emotional.

The latter considering the social hierarchy of valorization or devaluation that accompanies them, that is to say that it questions itself, exclusion, discrimination, silencing, omission, biases, devaluation, especially of the feminine and of women, although later other historically vulnerable positions were incorporated through an intersectional perspective.

A) Yes, It is constituted as an option against the biological and essentialist premises that establish or naturalize differences by sex, race, disability, and the universalist and colonial premises that tend to the homogenization of bodies and experiences.

Some nuances of Feminist Epistemology

Harding (1996) proposes that Feminist Epistemology goes through different nuances that coexist and are all necessary, since they have had different contributions to the way of doing science: feminist empiricism, the feminist point of view and postmodernism feminist.

1. Feminist empiricism

It is broadly a matter of trying to equate the position of women in the production of knowledge scientist compared to men through the number of women who do science compared to the number of mens. This is often a position that does not challenge the androcentric bias present in the research question itself.

2. Feminist point of view

It is based on the premise that using man's point of view to construct social reality makes this society become build in an inequitable way, so the female experience point of view can create a more complete knowledge and equitable.

However, feminist views continue to use traditional science research methods at times. It is not about believing that women will do "better science" than men, but about recognizing that both experiences have different values, and that the female experience has been oppressed before the male.

3. Feminist postmodernism

Sometimes the feminist point of view does not take into account the relationships of oppression that are connected with the experience of women, with which it is also necessary to point out that the multiplicity of identities that are built in contemporary societies produce different experiences, so there is not one truth or a single experience in "being woman".

Feminist postmodernism strengthens the discussion on concepts such as subjectivity, social construction, sex-gender, gender and power relations, sexual division of labor, according to the diverse social experience of identities that are constructed not only by gender but by class, race, culture, etc.

Challenges to traditional epistemology

Feminist Epistemology, however, and due to its intrinsic characteristics, is a very heterogeneous question, which has frequently been faced with a major challenge: that of meeting the standards and parameters of what is considered a “science”, for example, the construction of categories, assumptions and axioms that go beyond discourse and that can be valid in terms of rigor scientific

Given this, many proposals have arisen, from the situated objectivity of Donna haraway, up to concrete proposals for concrete contexts where methods of research that corresponds to the questions that feminism has brought to our way of thinking. meet the world.

Bibliographic references:

• Velasco, S. (2014). Sexes, gender and health. Theory and methods for clinical practice and health programs. Minerva Editions: Madrid
• Espín, L.M. (2012). In transition. The epistemology and feminist philosophy of science facing the challenges of a context of multicultural crisis. e-card CES. [Online], Posted on December 1, 2012, accessed April 12, 2018. Available in http://eces.revues.org/1521
• Guzmán, M. and Pérez, A. (2005). Feminist Epistemologies and Gender Theory. Moebio tape, 22: 112-126.
• Harding, S. (1996). Science and feminism. Morata Editions: Madrid