The “Free University of Women.” Reflections on the Conditions for a Feminist Politics of Knowledge

Abstract

In this paper I draw some reflections from the experience of the Free University of Women in Milan, Italy. Through this experience it was possible to clarify some of the main issues at stake in feminist knowledge production and pedagogy such as: the relationship between women's and feminist culture, the knowledge production processes which occur among women, their epistemology, and the kind of scientific rigor of such a body of knowledge. These issues are particularly important from the perspective of teaching and transmitting feminism to a new generation of women.

Citation

Melchiori, P. (2006), "The “Free University of Women.” Reflections on the Conditions for a Feminist Politics of Knowledge", Demos, V. and Texler Segal, M. (Ed.) Gender and the Local-Global Nexus: Theory, Research, and Action (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 125-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2126(06)10006-5