By Any Reasonable Standard, Feminist Epistemology Should Have Expired in 1994; Feminist Epistemology Should Not Be Taken Seriously

Feminist epistemology consists of theories of knowledge created by women, about women's modes of knowing, for the purpose of liberating women. By any reasonable standard, it should have expired in 1994. Working independently, Gross and Levitt in Higher Superstition, Sommers in Who Stole Feminism? as well as Patai and Koertge in Professing Feminism all identified fatal flaws in the feminist epistemological program. More detailed analyses appeared in Feminist Epistemology: For and Against, a special issue of the The Monist, edited by Haack. The simple bottom line of all these critiques is succinctly expressed by Pinnick in a 1994 issue of Philosophy of Science: "No feminist epistemology is worthy of the name, because such an epistemology fails to escape well known vicissitudes of epistemic relativism. The central thesis of this article is that feminist epistemology should not be taken seriously."

There is a long history of cogent criticisms of feminist epistemology--recall, for example, Radcliffe Richards's beautifully argued book, The Sceptical Feminist, which appeared in 1981. And at a symposium in 1980, where Harding and Hartsock were already decrying Bacon's alleged rape metaphors, I vigorously criticized their "standpoint" epistemology: "One final polemical remark: If it really could be shown that patriarchal thinking not only played a crucial role in the Scientific Revolution but is also necessary for carrying out scientific inquiry as we know it, that would constitute the strongest argument for patriarchy that I can think of! I continue to believe that science- even white, upperclass, male-dominated science--is one of the most important allies of oppressed people."

--Noretta Koertge, "Feminist Epistemology: Stalking an Un-Dead Horse," in The Flight from Science and Reason, ed. Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt, and Martin W. Lewis (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1996), 413.