Mary Field Belenky (1933–2020)

Epistemology is the study of the manner in which people acquire knowledge. Belenky, et al. conducted 135 interviews to investigate the way women acquire and convey their knowledge of the world. They identified five epistemological categories, or "ways of knowing," intimately connected to their experiences of authority: (1) silence, in which women perceive themselves as essentially mindless and without any authority of their own; (2) received knowledge, in which women perceive themselves able to receive and reproduce knowledge from external authorities, but unable to develop knowledge; (3) subjective knowledge, in which women depend entirely on their inner knowing or intuition in the development of knowledge, spurning contributions from any outside source; (4) procedural knowledge, in which women learn and apply procedures for getting and communicating knowledge; and (5) constructed knowledge, in which women perceive themselves as "creators of knowledge, and value both subjective and objective strategies for knowing" (p. 15). The authors conclude with an examination of the effect of family interaction and educational environment on the development of the five identified epistemological positions. Generally, but not exclusively, Belenky, et al. 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 for the masculine way of being.… (més)