Image of The Merits and Limits of a Gendered Epistemology: Muslim Women and the Politics of Knowledge Production

The Merits and Limits of a Gendered Epistemology: Muslim Women and the Politics of Knowledge Production

Download PDF

At their essence, feminist epistemologies argue that traditional male epistemologies have
systematically removed the voice of women from knowledge production, effectively barring
women from being “knowers”. How does the gendering of knowledge affect those with a particular
perspective of viewing the world? This article explores the merits and limitations of a gendered
epistemology by employing standpoint theory as a tool of analysis. Through the lens and context
of the intersection of religion, gender, and Western academia, I trace the politics of knowledge
production as it relates to Muslim women working within an Islamic paradigm. This article first
explores gender as a category of analysis that came out of feminist epistemologies. It discusses the
merits of allowing gender to be the primary and focal point of our knowledge, and consequently,
how it has been employed within a particular Islamic paradigm. By drawing on the works of
postcolonial theory, it then considers the limitations of such a process. The gendered
epistemologies associated with Western secular thought – by placing gender as the primary
category of analysis – have led to a uni-dimensional and monolithic understanding of what it means
to be “gendered” for “Third World women”, particularly Muslim women. I interrogate this notion
of a gendered epistemology as the only way of knowing by suggesting that a cross-cultural and
intersectional “set of perspectives that place the category of gender within the category of other
frameworks of ‘difference’” (Nye, 2003: 97) – in this case religion – pursues a more nuanced
approach that is attune to a variety of epistemologies rather than a single unified gendered
epistemology.

Detail Information
Publication Information
: .,
Number of Pages
-
ISBN
-
Language
English
ISSN
-
Subject(s)
Postcolonial Feminism
Gendered Epistemology
Standpoint Theory
Muslim Women
Epistemology
Postcolonial theory
Description
-
Citation
Other Information
Type
Article
Part Of Series
-
DOI Identifier
-
Related Publications

No Related Publications available

Comments