Jackie Hudson, Feminist

The following books have been particularly illuminating:

Educational psychologists Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, and Jill Tarule delineate five epistemological perspectives "from which women view reality and draw conclusions about truth, knowledge, and authority. Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1986.

Theologian Mary Daly explicates the pattern of sacrificing/silencing women and suggests strategies for enhancing the ecology of women. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston: Beacon, 1978.

Philosopher Marilyn Frye analyzes the forces which subordinate women and describes "those forces in ways which help make sense of the experiences of women who live in all sorts of different situations." The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1983. In a subsequent set of essays she theorizes about the "rejection of assimilation, the embrace of boundary living, and the commitment to women's invention of women at and beyond the limits of patriarchy." Willful Virgin: Essays in Feminism. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1992.

Mathematical biophysicist Evelyn Fox Keller discusses the role of gender in the construction of science. In particular, she asks: "How much of the nature of science is bound up with the idea of masculinity, and what would it mean for science if it were otherwise?" Reflections on Gender and Science. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Historian Gerda Lerner hypothesizes that "it is the relationship of women to history which explains the nature of female subordination, the causes for women's cooperation in the process of their subordination, and the conditions for their opposition to it." The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. In a sequel she states that "women were denied knowledge of their history [and since] they could not ground their argument in the work of women before them, thinking women of each generation had to waste their time, energy and talent on constructing their argument anew. The Creation of Feminist Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.