Feminist Epistemology

By Hannah Calaman, Neha Soman, and Kazi Stanton-Thomas; Edited by Elvin Li, Matea Kuzmic, and Leila Merhi

Feminist epistemology is the application of feminist ideas. It concerns the theory of knowledge, including the way it is created, attributed, justified, and acquired. Rather than striving for ideals of objectivity, as mainstream epistemology often does, feminist epistemology emphasizes the importance of positionality in forming theory and understanding knowledge processes. It seeks to answer questions like “how do social identities impact who gets to participate in knowledge creation” and “how do social identities impact the way we view–and theorize about–the world”. Despite its name, feminist epistemology does not restrict its analysis to the impact of gender on knowledge, but instead takes an intersectional approach that considers all aspects of identity (Grasswick, 2018).

It should be no surprise that women are disadvantaged intellectually through dominant knowledge practices, beyond being disadvantaged politically and socially. This disadvantage is manifested in a variety of ways. Women are often excluded from inquiry and stereotyped in ways that intend to delegitimize them as epistemic authorities, including through insults against thought processes and theories perceived as feminine. As a result, they are often not afforded the privilege to create knowledge and have it properly attributed to them. On the other side of knowledge practices, theories are often produced to represent women as inferior, dependent, or useful only if in the interests of men. Similarly, many theories produced by the traditional ‘academy’ serve to diminish the existence and experience of sexism or represent the hegemonic authority’s experience as universal, leading to the sole production of knowledge that is not relevant or useful to marginalized people, including women. The goal of feminist epistemology is to counteract this intellectual and academic marginalization.

Picture of Sara Ahmed created by herself, featured in Guernica in 2017

Feminist epistemology is practiced through the creation and expansion of theory, specifically that of feminist theory. While this knowledge is grounded in the analysis of gender structurally, personally, and socially, it is based on the analyzer’s intersectional identity. Sara Ahmed provides an analysis of feminist theory in her writing, “Bringing Feminist Theory Home”. Ahmed provides an increasing outlook on how feminism evolves, is popularized, and how people further their engagement in feminism. One of the primary points that she emphasizes within the piece is the deconstruction of colonialism, and she constructs this point through an emphasis on intersectionality.

Sara cross-analyzes the feminist lessons derived from her Muslim aunt, Lahore, and the academic works of diverse feminists (Ahmed 2017). By acknowledging the lessons from Lahore, Sara utilizes a bottom-up approach to knowledge construction, which privileges marginalized voices rather than majority or scholarly voices. Sara also explains how Muslim feminism has disrupted the idea that feminism starts in Western, eurocentric society and spreads outwards to the Global South and nations of color. This assumption is incorrect and inherently racist. By framing her knowledge production around “the East”, her sense of autonomy is increased, because her mind “is not owned” (Ahmed 2017).  She follows this analysis of ethnic ties in feminism with the work of bell hooks, specifically hook’s definition of feminism, “the movement to end sexism, sexual exploitation, and sexual oppression.” This makes a powerful AND direct connection between feminism and anti-racism. Additionally, she devalues any feminism that lacks intersectionality or is blind to the racism within the feminist movement, which she defines as white feminism (Ahmed 2017). The creation of knowledge within Ahmed’s piece is structural analysis and structural critique. In the patriarchal sense of epistemology, intersectionality and sociopolitical advantage is not “objective.” Not because these experiences are “untrue,” but because recognizing these experiences in an expansive analysis point at the elaborate faults of the power systems at play. Additionally, by refusing this recognition, patriarchal epistemology can be used as a tool to pit marginalized communities against one another. With this, Ahmed explains feminism as homework, active self-education, improvement, and consistent critique of power systems at large.  She writes the importance of recognizing the structural origins of intersectionality, who is affected by it, and how feminists should engage with it to ensure an effective movement.

Some Points on “objectivity”:

The objectivity ideal of traditional epistemology deserves deeper discussion, because it is a sticking point for many theorists when it comes to the development of a feminist epistemology.

• Stereotypes: Women’s theories cannot be universal because womens’ experiences are intersectional, and therefore they do not deserve academic attention. Women lack an objective view of the world and cannot be impartial, and therefore cannot create theories that hold up as “truth.”
• Feminist epistemology does not attempt to assert that women are in fact objective, impartial, or universal, but instead challenges whether these ideas are truly so essential to knowledge practices in search of “truth.”
• “Objective” is framed as being equivalent to the standards cishet white men created through structures that devalue personal experience, descriptions, and qualitative observation (Toole 2022).
• “Objectivity” ignores the identity of the subject and the observer, but it does not ignore the bias that occurs.

Although some scholars believe that feminist epistemology imposes political constraints on what can be considered “truth,” feminist epistemology actually offers a more expansive and nuanced understanding of what can be considered truth. In fact, every form of knowledge building is political. As explained by other scholars, “Feminists do not reject objectivity and science, but rather seek to improve it by correcting sexist and androcentric biases in scientific inquiry,” (Anderson, 2000). Through an unconventional assessment of truth, feminist epistemology creates space for non-academic forms of knowledge production. Feminist art, for example, is a form of knowledge through embodied expression. Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi or Rokudenashiko (“good for nothing kid” in English) creates work with models of her vagina, using the vulgar term manko (“cunt” or “pussy” in English) to desensitize her audience. She destigmatizes female anatomy in the context of Japanese gender norms by building a subversive and personal visual language. Igarashi’s artworks also speak to the concept of “Feminist Aesthetics”. Traditional artworks often bear and perpetuate stereotypical understandings of race, gender and sexuality. Korsmeyer, along with other scholars, contend that Feminist Aesthetics “have broadened from early analyses of norms governing female appearance to include consideration of the disabled body and of transgender identities” (Korsmeyer et al).

Rokudenashiko with her kayak she created using a mold of her vagina. The artist was arrested and charged with distributing indecent material after a crowdfunding campaign to 3D print the kayak. (Courtesy of the artist and Koyama Press, pictured in CBC Magazine).

A scene from Rokudenashiko’s graphic novel What Is Obscenity? depicting a cartoon manko imprisoned. (Courtesy of the artist and Koyama Press, pictured in CBC Magazine)

Ahmed, Sara. 2017. “Bringing Feminist Theory Home.” In Living a Feminist Life, 1-18. Duke University Press.

Anderson, Elizabeth. 2000. “Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. August 9. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-epistemology/. Revised Feb 13, 2020.

“Feminist Aesthetics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).” 2021. March 12, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-aesthetics/.

Grasswick, Heidi. 2018. “Feminist Social Epistemology.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. July 24. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-social-epistemology/.

Kenins, Luke. 2016. “Meet Rokudenashiko, the most ‘obscene’ comic artist at TCAF.” CBC Magazine. Radio-Canada.

Mehra, Nishta j., Ahmed,  Sara. 2017. “Image of Sara Ahmed.” By Sara Ahmed. https://www.guernicamag.com/sara-ahmed-the-personal-is-institutional/

Toole, Briana. 2022. “Objectivity in Feminist Epistemology.” Philosophy Compass, Vol.17 (11).