Description of Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind - Female

This theory illustrates five perspectives, in which women view themselves and the world, and how they make meaning of their life. The theory found that there were many outside influences such as “race, class, gender, ethnicity, physical ability, sexual orientation, and regional affiliation” that played a role in the formation of one’s cognitive development (Belenky et al., 1986, (Love, & Guthrie, 1999). Research for this theory was conducted by exploring the ways participants formed their way of knowing. There were 135 female participants from urban and rural areas represented in the study. Participants were from a variety of educational levels, age (sixteen to sixty), ethnicity's, and class were represented.

Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule concluded that women progress through a series of five epistemological perspectives. The researchers note that the perspectives are not stages and an individual cannot stay fixed in one perspective. It is also important to point out that the theory is not universal because it cannot address the complexity of each individual’s life (Love, & Guthrie, 1999).

The researchers describe cognitive development as a relationship between the self, voice, and mind. The diagram below is developed to provide you a visual representation of the formation of cognitive development.

The Five Epistemological Perspectives as described in Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind:

Silence:

As the title suggests, in this perspective women lack a voice because of their dependency on authority to speak for themselves due to low sense of self or isolation, among other reasons. Goldberger (1997) describes this as a way of not knowing. The women in this perspective had several characteristics in common such as experiences of abuse and violence; combined with the incapability to form their own thoughts and lack of confidence to learn from experience, these women failed to develop a mind of their own. This perspective does not have to be present for cognitive development but is acknowledged as a common starting point for many women.

Received Knowing:

Women at this perspective have begun to learn from listening to authorities. Their method of learning is by receiving, memorizing, and mimicking words from authorities. Because of the regurgitating of others’ words, women have trouble creating “original work.” To these women, the world is in black and white, no gray areas, and they either understand and idea or they do not. Women are unsure about their knowledge as they look to others for it and as a result they lack confidence in speaking.

Subjective Knowing:

Here, women are developing their self and voice, two of the main factors for cognitive development (mind). Their inner voice was the catalyst that ignited the change towards becoming more active as a subjective knower. A power shift is occurring, as women become the authority. As their own authoritative figure, women use their own experiences as the basis for knowledge and truth. The learning method here is more proactive by immersing themselves into the world to create new experiences.

Procedural Knowing:

The women in this perspective recognize that they need “procedures for knowing”; these procedures include the examination of authority and external truth (Belenky et al., 1986). The authorities for women in college are those who hold positions within their institutions and so they make an effort to recognize new authorities. Procedural knowers speak with both of the following voices:

• Separate knowers: looked for and analyzed knowledge by justifying it. Separate knowers looked beyond the object of knowing; they were separate from it and then make their evaluations. They utilized the “doubting game” in which they doubt all knowledge until proven “worthy” (Belenky et al., 1986).
• Connected knowers: the main goal of the connected knower is to understand. They accept the perspective and opinions of individuals, acknowledge the “worth” in them, and pay attention to details. This method is described as the “believing game” and they employ it because they are actively trying to understand the other person

Constructed Knowing:

After a period of self-reflection, women arrive at the last perspective. This is the result of the incorporation of the three components for cognitive development: self, voice, and mind. The women here are conscious about themselves and others and they give attention to what goes on internally and externally. They have the ability to carry on significant dialogue by responding with active listening and talking. The women accepted previous ways of knowing because they acknowledge that the past can provide them with different results.