Language and Gender

How has gender shaped my experience as a knower?

Well, I don't know. I take gender equality very seriously and I'm proud to be a female, but I don't think I know anything that males don't know. I'm better at math than my friend Jacob, but he's just not good at math. It's not like he's bad at math because he's a man and I'm better because I'm a woman.

I guess it depends on what  it is that I am knowing. If I'm having an informed conversation about the 28-day woman's cycle, I would probably have a better time with another woman, because we would both have the innate knowledge and experience. A man would not have that knowledge, simply because he would not have experienced it. But I wouldn't know how to have a conversation about men's biological processes (a fact of which I am not proud.)

I don't really believe in maternal instinct. I know a lot of terrible mothers. My mother is wonderful, but I feel like maternal "talent" is passed down. She had a wonderful mother, and maybe I'll be a wonderful mother. But in terms of maternal instinct, I just don't believe that people are born with the ability to be mothers just because they are born with the parts that carry babies.

My gender has played a huge role in my life, since I’ve been using my identification as a woman to help me discover who I am. I think that my gender has shaped the way that I know myself, and the way that I think. If I wasn’t part of a gender that has been oppressed (and kind of still is), I wouldn’t have the knowledge that I do about gender equality. This is partially because my mother and grandmother have taught me a lot about women’s rights, and I think that’s why I feel like I’m informed because of that. I’ve been raised around a lot of really strong, smart women.