The Sex of Knowing (PDF)

Michèle Le Doeuff is a leading French philosopher, and one of the most important feminist thinkers writing today. The Sex of Knowing , Le Doeuff's most significant work to date, provides a comprehensive account of her views. This is the first English translation of her inspiring book. Le Doeuff's target is the continuing tendency to think that men are more rational, more analytic than women, a tendency that persists in spite of our thinking we know better. She argues that the conceptual links between masculinity and rationality are deeply rooted in the public imagination and institutions of learning, and continue to have devastating effects on what women are able to achieve. To shed light on the depth and persistence of the problem, Le Doeuff leads us on provocative archeological journey through the great texts and authors of the past and present from Plato and Descartes to Evelyn Fox Keller and Kate Millett in search of the origins and extent of a set of contemporary reflexes that hold misogynistic thinking in place both in the larger society, and within science and philosophy. An ambitious and highly persuasive book, The Sex of Knowing received widespread critical attention in the French press. Lorraine Code and Kathryn Hamer's superb translation is sure to have a similar impact on English speaking audiences everywhere.