Feminism in Writing Workshops: A New Pedagogy

Abstract

If workshop time permits, presenting faculty with the theory behind the pedagogical suggestions is helpful in convincing them to adopt these techniques. One might briefly introduce the major studies of women's moral, psychological and intellectual development, as well as recent feminist epistemological theories which have begun to influence feminist compositionists. In The Reproduction of Mothering Nancy Chodorow argues that women's continuing identification with the mother makes connected, interpersonal relationships central to their sense of self and representations of their lives. Men, on the other hand, spend a great amount of psychic energy separating themselves from the mother, and a process of isolated individuation is central to their development. Similarly, Carol Gilligan maintains, in In a Different Voice, that women's morality is based on relationships and their contexts rather than adherence to abstract principles of right. In Women's Ways ofKnowing, Mary Field Belenky and her co-authors have