iscussion. It is a difference of discipline verses empathy. Society, being male dominated, values male detachment and impartiality more than female connectedness.
Belenky et al. defined five stages of epistemological development in women: silence, received knowledge, subjective knowledge, procedural knowledge, and constructed knowledge. In a state of silence, a woman feels disconnected from the world around her. She is unable to find meaning in the words of other people around her. The woman, of silence, perceives authority figures to be arbitrary and unpredictable. She exists not to create trouble. Perry does not have a category comparable to silence for the epistemological development of men.
A woman at the stage of received knowledge accepts the word of experts and authority as truth. She is able to follow the advice of an authority and is able to regurgitate the facts that she has learned; she not able to comprehend that experts do not always agree with each other. A woman in this position does not identify herself with authority. This differs from what Perry found in men at the stage of basic duality which is similar to Belenky's stage of received knowledge.
The ability to acknowledge a variety of differing positions on an issue is necessary for a woman to reach the stage of subjective knowledge. This state is similar to Perry's position of multiplicity. It differs in that a woman, at this stage is able to choose a version of truth or hold an opinion on a subject which she believes is correct. While the woman's reasoning ability is at this level she does not articulate her
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