Communication Research 197

Belenky, M. (1986). Womens Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind.
New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Introduction | To The Other Side of Silence

five different perspectives from which women view reality and draw conclusions about truth,
knowledge, and authority (p.3)
Based on extensive interviews with ordinary women living ordinary lives

Background of the Study

Began in the late 1970s
The absence of Women in Psychology
Major theories of human development have been men
Human nature as dual but parallel streams
Womans Voice in Developmental Theory: The Work of Carol Gilligan
Notions of responsibility and care
The self is being defined in terms of relationships and connections to others
Epistemological Development: The Work of William Perry
Perry describes how students conceptions of the nature and origins of knowledge evolve
and how their understanding of themselves as knowers changes over time.
Women to conform with the patterns that had been observed in the male data
Dualism to multiplicity to relativism subordinate to full relativism
Relativism affirmation of personality and commitment evolves

The Women and the Interview

Explore womens experience and problems as learners and knowers
Methodology
135 women disadvantaged and forgotten women
Tailored from womens point of view
Analysis of the Interview
Blind Coding
silence
received knowledge
subjective knowledge
procedural knowledge
constructed knowledge

Removing the Blinders

contextual analysis
Educational Dialectics

The Metaphor of Voice and Silence

Chapter 1 | Silence

silent women, social agencies for parents

absence of voice

I had trouble talking. If I tried to explain something and someone told me that it was wrong,
Id burst into tears over it. Id just fall apart (p.23).

Feeling Deaf and Dumb

the case of Cindy
metaphor that suggests womens experience
deaf, assumption that they could not learn from the words of others
dumb , because they felt voiceless (p. 24)
words as weapons, to separate people instead of connecting and empowering them
concept of punishment for using words - any words
I dont like talking to my husband. If I were to say no, he might hit me (p.24).

Experiencing Disconnection
the case of Bonnie
representational thought
reflection - language must pass back and forth
women are isolated from others; without representation they remain isolated from the self
inability to find meaning

Obeying the Wordless Authorities

the case of Cindy
authorities as being all powerful (p. 27)
authorities tell you what they want you to do
blind obedience to authorities; unquestioned submission
women see themselves as powerless, dependent
They didnt say; they just said we didnt believe in them (p.28).

Maintaining the Womans Place

the case of Ann
sex-role stereotypes: women as passive and incompetent
dependence and deference to authorities
life in terms of polarities
I was brought up thinking a woman was supposed to be very feminine and sit back and let
the man do all the stuff You just had to have a man (p. 29).

Conceiving the Self

the case of Cindy
different ways of conceptualizing the self
almost impossible for the silent ones (p. 31)
associate themselves in terms of spaces and movements
they do not provide a portrait of the physical self (p. 32)
I am a person who likes to stay home Yah, cause I used to describe myself as not being
home. And now I am home all the time. So thats about the only thing that is different (p.31)

Seen but Never Heard

discussion with others was discouraged

use of violence than words to influence ones behavior
importance of play
school - confirmed their fears of being deaf and dumb (p. 34)
My father was a first-class bastard. The only way he believed of doing anything was with a
club, a stick, or with the back of his hand. All you had to do was breathe (p.32).
Chapter 2 | Received Knowledge: Listening to the Voices of Others

parenthood as an epistemological revolution

movement from silence to "received knowing

Listening as a Way of Knowing

words as central to knowing process
dualism (Perry, 1970)
others voices > own voice

Listening to Friends
having the same ideas as others
symbiotic, transformative relationship with peers

Listening to Authorities
authorities as sources of truth
looking to others for direction and information
truth as absolute, and no way to know it without the help of authorities
intolerance of ambiguity
learning the material without transforming it

Comparing Men and Women as Knowers

dichotomy: "Authority-right-we" vs "illegitimate-wrong others" (Perry)
Authority-right-they (p. 44); awed by but did not identify with the authorities
why received knowledge?
stereotype of nagging women, but why does sample show otherwise?

Entering into the Moral Community

outward moral knowledge, outward moral judgments
moral thinking: dichotomies and intolerance of ambiguity
either/or thinking
others-centered
hierarchical arrangement and dualistic worlds
caring and empowerment of others as central to their lifes work (p. 48)

Conceiving the Selfless Self

What do they think of me? and What would they want me to become? (p. 48)
static self-description
Chapter 3 | Subjective Knowledge: The Inner Voice

the case of Inez

The Emergence of Subjective Knowing

from passivity to action, from self as static to self as becoming, from silence to a protesting
inner voice and infallible gut (p. 54)
subjectivism or subjective knowing
intuitive process
maturity
Women and Failed Authority
the shift in perspective on knowing was associated with recent changes in their personal
lives (p. 56)
inability to tell how they came to think the way they did (p. 56)
inchoate urging
grown up either in actual physical danger or in such intimidating circumstances that they
feared being wrong (p. 57)
failed male authority
education per se played a minor role in the shift (p. 58)

Sexual Harassment and Abuse

women spontaneously mention childhood and adolescent sexual trauma as an important
factor affecting their learning and relationships to male authority (p. 58)
cognitive cloudiness

Maternal Authority and the Woman in Transition

they had experienced themselves as outside or at the bottom of the power hierarchy
men as authorities > other women as familiar authorities
affirmation
discovery that firsthand experience is a valuable source of knowledge (p. 61)

Perrys View of Men and the Shift Out of Dualism

multiplicity: emphasis on personal truth (p. 62)
shift into multiplicity/subjectivism
Perry observes that young people today realize that controversy and uncertainty are
everywhere (p. 63)
how to position the self vis--vis defrocked authority (p. 63)
reason and right

Hidden Multiplists: Stories of Advantaged Women

The daughters from such families enter college with an unquestioned acceptance of family
standards and ambitions only to find themselves confronted on all sides by alternative
viewpoints and life-styles (p. 65)
approaches multiplicity much more cautiously (p. 65)
one solution: to retreat into anonymity and surface conformity by adapting a wait-and-see
attitude (p. 66)
truth from above -> belief in multiple personal truths
Its just my opinion (p. 66)
they often harbor unspoken desires to be free from prescriptions of others (p. 66)
intellectual daring predated overt action and rejection of her parents wishes for her (p. 67)
Why they remained so long in environments that felt stifling to them was not always clear
(p. 67)
Just Knowing: The Inner Expert

redefine the nature of authority (p. 68); external to internal authority; personal authority (p.
68)
a difficult time identifying the new source of knowing and articulating the process (p. 68)
shaky about their own judgment but are proud if others affirm their conclusions and
opinions (p. 68)
truth as intuitive reaction
subjectivist womens own experience and inner voice are the final arbiters (p. 70)
Alien Expertise
distrust of logic, analysis, abstraction, language, science, theorizing; masculine
intuitive knowledge vs what they assume to be the impersonality of abstract thought (p.
71)
anchored in a concrete interaction with a specific teacher or doctor or male acquaintance
from the past (p. 72)
Chapter 4 | Subjective Knowledge: The Quest for Self

A newly acquired subjectivism led woman to a new world (p.76)

Relationships and the concept of self begin to change

Severance of Connections: Walking Away from the Past

Subjectivist women end their relationships with their partners, reject familial obligations and
move away on their own.
acting on the self as opposed to denying the self and living from and through others (p.77)
a dilemma on womens morality
young women: freedom from oppressive or stagnant parental and community influences
women from close-knit communities: avoidance of pressure to conform
Women become assertive of their own authority and autonomy.
brought a widespread cultural sanction of self-indulgence, self-actualization and
opportunism in 1970s (p.78)
Me-decade by Tom Wolfe (1976) and Cult of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch (1979)
The escape from past relationships displays the aspects of negative identity"
defining the self in terms of opposition to others or what you are not (p.78)
a function of the familial and educational environments
Women develop negative attitudes toward male population or become antimale
started from negative attitudes toward specific men in their past
men as controlling, demanding, negating and life-suppressing
Women are still invested in connections to people whom they think understand and support
them
Concepts of the Self
lack of grounding in a secure, integrated and enduring self-concept (p.81)
due to distancing themselves from the familiar contexts and relationships within which the
old identity has been embedded (p.81)
Womens subjective knowledge brought a sense of loss of themselves
Women felt trapped by the negative images from the past
Fluctuations in the sense of who they were are regarded as signs of their openness to
change and novelty
Imagery of birth, rebirth and childhood to describe the nascent self
Leaping towards a dim future
Effects of Subjectivism
Women gain a sense of accomplishment/strength, optimism and self-value
They may become impatient and dismissive of other peoples interpretations (p.84)

Likened to oppositional multiplists entrapped in their own argumentativeness(Perry,1970,

p.99)
unwilling to accept other peoples perspectives and are stubbornly committed to their own
perspectives
They remained concerned with not hurting the feelings of their opponents by openly
expressing dissent (p.84)
Women experience feelings of existential loneliness and despair.
Inward-watching and listening as means to gain knowledge of self
Knowledge is obtained from observing the self as well as observing others (p.85)
Observation and listening are regarded as primary means available for articulation and
differentiation of self (p.85)
Draw comparisons between their own and other peoples experiences
Become aware of the other as other
Watching,listening subjectivists attract other persons trust (p.85)
Chapter 5 | Procedural Knowledge: The Voice of Reason

Steps toward Procedural Knowledge

Women encountered situations in which their old ways of knowing were challenged. (p.88)
Conflict between the absolutist dictates of the authorities and the womens own
subjectivism (p.88).
Deemed the conflict as an attempt to stifle their inner voices and draw them back into a
world of silent obedience
The presence of fairly benign authorities may be critical to the development of the voice of
reason (p.90)
The cases of Patti and Naomi
To achieve the voice of reason, one must encounter authorities who are not only benign, but
also knowldgeable. (p.93)
Aspects of Procedural Knowledge
Speaking in measured tones
Engagement in a conscious, deliberate, systematic analysis (p.93)
Truth is not immediately accessible (p.94)
Knowing requires careful observation and analysis
Knowing how
Acquiring and applying procedures for obtaining and communicating knowledge
Form vs content
Methodolatry (coined by Mary Daly,1973)
Dangerous for women
Procedures may make it difficult for women to acquire knowledge
Increased sense of control
Perspective taking
Procedural knowledge reveals a more complex world than the subjective and received
knowledge.
Ways of looking as central to procedural knowledge
Builds upon the subjectivist insight that different people have, but goes beyond the idea of
opinions as static residue of experience
Knowledge as process
Interested in HOW, not WHAT
Objectivity
Chapter 6| Procedural Knowledge: Separate and Connected Knowing

Procedural knowledge: procedures for meaning making

Separate Knowing

Connected Knowing

Theme of knowing, involving separation

from the object and mastery over it

Theme of understanding
-involving intimacy and equality between
self and object
-entails acceptance
-precludes evaluation

Used to construct arguments powerful

enough to meet the standards of an
impersonal authority

Entering the other persons frame to

discover the premises for the others point
of view

the way They want you to think

how they think

Orientation is toward impersonal rules

Orientation is toward relationship

Morality based on impersonal procedures

Morality based on care

Critical thinking

Comes from personal experience

Doubting: they immediately look for

something wrong

Women find it easier to believe than to

doubt.

The more believable the interpretation is,

the harder you must try to doubt it.

A clinical interview instead of a courtroom

interrogation

Listening to reason: wary of other peoples

words and reasons

Experiential logic

They could argue only about things that

did not matter; argument was possible
only if pointless

From facts of other peoples lives to focus

to other peoples ways of thinking

Women find it hard to see doubting as a

game; they tend to take it personally.

Refusing to judge: instinct to look at it from

the other persons point of view

loss of voice- especially when separate

knowing is the only voice allowed and
especially when that voice is just
beginning to emerge

Collaborating: they utter half-baked halftruths and ask others to nurture them

Public voice- writing papers but not

writing their own ideas, feelings, and
voices

Personality as adding to the perception

Self-extrication: Avoiding projection by

suppressing the self, being objective and
impersonal

Opening up to receive anothers

experience into their own minds

Beyond procedural knowledge:

troubles with separate and connected knowing

beating the system

integration of feeling and thinking
She must learn again to speak
Starting with I
Starting with We
Starting as the infant does
With her own true hunger
And pleasure
And rage. (1978, p.38)
Chapter 7: Constructing Knowledge: Integrating Voices
Constructed knowledge:
Attempting to integrate knowledge that they felt intuitively was personally important with
knowledge they had learned from others
Combining strands of rational and emotive thought and of integrating objecting and
subjective knowing
Letting the inside out and the outside in
Women going through intense self-reflection and self-analysis
Truths within the self are mutable and internal truths may conflict and change with time
Experts and Truth in Context
opening of the mind and the heart to embrace the world
The passionate knower
entering into a union with that which is to be known
elaborated form of connected knowing that taking place after women learn to use the self as
an instrument of understanding
Real talk
requires careful listening
implies a mutually shared agreement that together you are creating the optimum setting so
that half-baked or emergent ideas can grow
reaches deep into the experience of each participant, draws on the analytical abilities of
each
The capacity for speaking with and listening to others while simultaneously speaking with
and listening to the self is an achievement that allows a conversation to open between
constructivists and the world
Silence and Conflict
Constructivist women need and value attentive strangers as well as understanding friends
and colleagues
Moral Imperatives
resisting of premature generalization about what they would do or what should be done,
particularly about matters of right and wrong
The moral response is a caring response
good opinion
the only good opinion is a humanistic one, one that shows an immense respect for the world
and the people in it and for those you are going to affect
Opinion is a commitment, something to live by
Commitment and action
Constructivist women mitigate any single choice by considering the effects it will have on
others
It is a life foreseen rather than a single commitment foreseen
They learn to live with compromise and to soften ideals they find unworkable. They aspire to
work that contributes to the empowerment and improvement in the quality of life of others.

They reveal in the way they speak and live their lives their moral conviction that ideas and
values, like children, must be nurtured, cared for, placed in environments that help them
grow.
Chapter 8 | Family Life and the Politics of Talk

Stories of Family as Told by the Silent

Talk had little value or was actively discouraged in which they grew up. (p.158)
Violence Instead of Dialogue
Force and violence over words; yell rather that talk
Dualistic Thinking
Describes their parents as chaotic and unpredictable
The Allocation of Life Chances
Finding strength elsewhere
Difference between the poor and the privileged
Liz and Mimi
Breaking the Cycle
Finding another world through books and literature
Keeping a diary
Finding human relationships outside of home
...by alleviating emotional difficulties can intellectual deficits be ameliorated. (p. 163)
Gaining a voice and developing an awareness of their own minds are the tasks that these
women must accomplish if they are to cease being either a perpetrator or a victim of family
violence. (p. 163)
Often replicate the same pattern of family life
The Families of Those who Listen to Voices of Others
One-way Talk
Parents do the talking, and children should and would listen
Parents said what was on their minds, but they did not strive to understand what was on
their daughters minds. (p. 165)
Inequality
They accepted the accustomed inequality in the parent-child relationship
Inequality between parent and child is only temporary
Sex-role stereotypes
Husbands should do the speaking, while wives listen
Rebellions-Adolescent and otherwise
These daughters took it and just walked off quietly, exactly as they wanted their mothers
do. (p. 166)
Men as Speakers, Women as Listeners
Speaking role are often allocated to men
Fathers and daughters more often stand at great distance
Primary content of dialogue: Preventing or Resolving Conflicts
Find difficulties in doing their parental roles
Unable to see others in their own terms
Dictatorial
Sometimes violent
Fleeing from family life and their children
Family Histories of Those with an Inner Voice
The Subjectivists
The daughters talked, and the parents listened
Seeking self-direction by listening to their infallible gut
Questioning Parental Authority
Controlled their lives and took it out of the hands of the parents

I sat her down and told her, Look, the only way I am going to learn is for me to experience it
for me. Let me find out. God knows, you found out. So let me find out. I will even let you say,
I told you so. Please (p. 168)
On dictatorial parents
A number became more flexible
To those who didnt, they are seen as narrow minded
Love their parents if they perceive them as responsive, open, and flexible
Reject them when they are doctrinaire and rigid
Father and Mothers as Knowers
Supermom
Independent and Self-sufficient
Recurrent in fiction that depicts the lives of African American
Associated to fathers abandoning their responsibilities
Subjectivists as Parents
Parents lessen images of impulsive, chaotic, and violent behavior.
More subordinated to their symbolic processes or the daughter is becoming more capable of
conceptualizing such possibility, or both.
More able to replace anarchy and despotism
Family Life and Integrating the Voices of Reason and Feeling
Women who questioned the infallibility of the guts and who were consciously cultivating and
integrating the voices of reason and emotion
Mothers and Dialogue
Both mothers and daughters have an equal say.
Connectedness Between Mothers and Daughters
Attachment and Autonomy
Has a greater sense of connection and of commonalities
Deepens with maturity
Jerome Kagan (1984):
Americans: independence and individuality
Japanese: close interdependence
Guiding Metaphors
Webs and Nets
Pyramids
Healing the Split Between Intellect and Emotion
Mothers: hot-tempered and hysterical
Fathers: cold and unemotional
Father-daughter relationship is often mediated by the mother
Mothers and Developing the Voice of Reason
Mothers have the ability to speak from the mind and to say what they thought
Fathers and Developing the Voice of Emotion
Fathers became more tolerant of their nurturant and affiliative responses
Maternal Conversation
Mothers try to enter into their daughters heads
Daughters strive their in their mothers term
Importance of drawing out and listening as wells as speaking to the child
Letting the child be guided by his/her own understanding and choices, and not dictated by
parents
Chapter 9 | Toward and Education for Women

Reminiscence of College
Confirmation of the Self as Knower

Knowing the Realities: The Voice of Experience

Freedom, Structure, and the Tyranny of Expectation
The Need for Structure
Precisely Articulated Curriculum
Absence of Structure
Youre respected until proven irresponsible.
Tyranny of Expectation
Motivated by duty rather than desire (Weil, 1951)
Competency-based programs
Being Bad and Breaking Down
The Need for Freedom
Chapter 10 | Connected Teaching
Sharing the Process
The banking concept distinguishes two stages in action of the educator. During the first, he
cognizes a cognizable object while he prepares his lessons in his study or his laboratory;
during the second, he expounds to his students the contents narrated by the teacher. The
students are not called upon to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher.
Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act
should be directed is the property of the teacher (Friere, 1971, pp. 67-68).
Faiths teacher: interpretation of The Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
Teachers only share the output of their thinking process, but not the actual process itself.
A woman needs to know, one alumna said, that her own ideas can be very good and
thoroughly reliable, that a theory is something that somebody thought up, and thats all
that a theory is. Its not this mysterious thing only Einstein could figure out.
Forms of communication in the academe - divine origin
Science
Usually taught by males
Quintessentially masculine intellectual activity
Professors - telling the truth and mere conjectures
...science is not a creation of the human mind.
Simone: accept at face value anything a chemistry professor said.
Omniscience and omnipotence of professors
Elizabeth Fee (1983, p. 19): The voice of the scientific authority is like the male voice-over
in commercials, a disembodied knowledge that cannot be questioned, whose author is
inaccessible.
There is a greater need for models of thinking as a human, imperfect, and attainable activity
instead of models of impeccable reasoning a student may imitate and learn from.
The Teacher as Midwife
Unidirectional vs. bi-directional flow of knowlede
Containers vs. empty receptacles of knowledge
I dont really think that anybody can put something into someone that isnt there. It has to be
there. - community college student
Women expressed they possessed latent knowledge
Midwife-teachers
In contrast with banker-teacher
Praised by many women
One who helps students, particularly females, in articulating and expanding their latent
knowledge
They draw the ideas and opinions out of the students, instead of coming up with such and
banking it to the students.
Maternal thinking

Preserve student's newborn thoughts

Fostering the childs growth
Shape natural growth
Focus is on the students knowledge and not their own
Connected Classes
Freires problem-posing method: object of knowledge - not a private property; medium
evoking critical reflection (teacher and students)
Teacher-student engagement in the thinking process
Public dialogue
Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to
exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers (Freire, 1971, p. 67).
Bess English course (usually taught in the banking mode)
Conversation and collaboration
Provides a culture of growth
Yoghurt class vs. movie class
Nurture each others thoughts to maturity
Evolving thought will be tentative
Community style vs. debate
Objectivity in Connected Teaching
Allows the students to discern the truth from within
Connected teachers embrace diversity
More of a facilitator/moderator, instead of a banker-teacher
Objectivity - seeing the other in his/her own terms (feelings, frustrations, etc.)
Similar to the participant-observation method
Modified - temporary affiliation
Portrait of a Connected Teacher
Candaces English professor at the womens college
...genuinely interested in everybodys feelings about things. She wanted to know because
she wanted to see what sort of effect this writing was having.
Presented herself as a person while retaining objectivity
Also presented objectivity as something personal to her
Connecting means to trust the different points raised and not simply tolerate such diverse
views and relate into each students perspective
Authority based on cooperation, not subordination
Belief, Doubt, and Development
Connected teachers are believers.
Psychology: doubt plays a more prominent role in cognitive development compared to belief
Current study: midwife model was more prominent than the teaching model wherein the
teacher aggressively challenged their notions.
Conflict model - women found this as debilitating
Doubt model
Self-doubt consumes so many women
Externally imposed doubts - redundant and/or destructive; confirms their own sense of being
inadequate knowers.
Inappropriate for both men and women
Womens Development as the Aim of Education
proper purpose of education: assisting students to reach the more mature stages of
development (intellectual, epistemological, ethical)
Stimulation into the natural directions of development (Kohlberg and Mayer, 1972, p.475)
rather than indoctrination
Reservations: the natural directions pertain to principled moral judgment and a standard
(and separate) principles of scientific method serving as the basis of rational reflectionbased epistemology (p. 475)

Conclusion
The current set-up and models utilized in our education system is tailored mainly for men.
Applying the same models to women, who have gained access to education way later than
men did, discounts their ability to learn and accumulate knowledge for these traditional
models of learning cannot and do not facilitate learning for women conducively.
Subjecting women to the current models of learning hastily assumes and generalizes that
the experiences of men are one and the same with women. This unjustly invalidates the
struggles that women since time immemorial, all over the world, have experienced before
reaching the point where they are now - relatively better than their previous conditions, but
still has a lot of changes that must be done.
The traditional models further reinforce the systemic oppression that hound women, even
after many years of the womens movement fighting for equality and freedom from
oppression.