SPEAKING BACK TO POWER: RECLAIMING EPISTEMIC AUTHORITY THROUGH FEMINIST LENS

Abstract (English)

ABSTRACT
“The world we live in does not suffer from lack of knowledge, but from a lack of listening to the truth which is not only rational but also gendered.”
In every sphere of knowledge production and dissemination, an invisible boundary often separates those considered legitimate knowers from those quietly excluded. This paper explores how gender plays a defining role in constructing that boundary and asks: Who gets to speak? Who is believed? And who is remembered in the making of knowledge?
Traditional academic paradigms have long privileged knowledge forms associated with objectivity and rationality—attributes historically aligned with masculinity—while marginalizing those rooted in emotion, intuition, and lived experience. Feminist critiques have shown how such hierarchies are shaped by enduring social and political structures that determine not only whose knowledge counts but whose is systematically ignored or erased.
This paper contributes to ongoing academic debates on epistemic authority, offering a critical examination of how dominant standards of validity are not neutral but deeply gendered. It underscores the importance of recognizing and valuing alternative epistemologies—those that are affective, embodied, and situated—as essential to a more inclusive and truthful understanding of the world.
By reclaiming epistemic space for voices historically silenced or sidelined, this work advocates for a structural reimagining of how we define and evaluate knowledge. It moves beyond calls for inclusion to argue for a shift in the very foundations of what is considered credible or authoritative, ultimately asserting that the question of “who is the knower” remains central to the future of knowledge itself.