The alternative is to transcend a binary relationship between feminist and masculine society---you should evaluate feminist epistemologies as a prerequisite to policy action.

B. Feminist Epistemologies and Seeking Alternatives There are several epistemological arguments that allow us to examine the construction of knowledge from a feminist standpoint. These are especially important for understanding what feminists might protect with intellectual property law and what remains outside the boundaries of protection. Each epistemological starting point has some relevance to the issue of intellectual property and the construction of knowledge.38

First, a feminist epistemology can be grounded in an examination of craft labor done by women. Craft labor focuses on labor performed by women involving “caring”—the labor of the hand, brain, and heart.39 Women’s labor networks people together in social structures by moving beyond labor as a commodity to labor as an act of care.40 This predominantly female type of knowledge construction can be contrasted to “industrialized labor,” which is claimed to be primarily masculine in construction.41 Industrialized labor exists within a system of production that generates knowledge in the abstract sense, instead of placing knowledge within social relationships.42 Women historically have been shut out of the industrial system of knowledge production, a system that takes place in factories, laboratories, and research institutes.43 Masculine knowledge exists within a capitalist mode of production, dividing subject from object and knower from the known. What men do for recognition, women do for love.44

A second epistemological feminist standpoint argues that when knowledge is constructed as abstract and rational, a gendered dynamic is at work.45 This argument claims that the abstract and rational knowledge is associated with the masculine, while a relational epistemology is associated with the feminine.46 It is important to recognize that feminists see this binary perception of knowledge not as an essential characteristic of women and men, but as a political construct that privileges one way of thinking and doing over another.47 A masculine social construction of knowledge means that women and men primarily participate in an already determined system framed by masculinity.

The ability to define one way of knowing as the only way of knowing, or the best way of knowing, is a question of domination and power. Many feminists want to deconstruct the power/domination relationship and suggest alternative methods for understanding relationships based upon reciprocal empowerment.48 A feminist way of knowing emphasizes the relationships built, rather than dominion over others. It seeks to value multiple ways of knowing instead of privileging one over the other. Thus, instead of replacing a masculine epistemology with a feminine epistemology, feminist scholarship seeks to transcend the binary altogether and create a new attitude towards knowledge that will value the abstract as well as the relational. The construction of a women’s epistemological standpoint has political power because it makes it possible to see that another way of thinking about the world is possible.

The abstract and rational construction of knowledge can be interpreted psychoanalytically as well.49 This psychoanalytic approach suggests that masculine individuality is defined by what it is not—it is defined against women as the other. Ironically, seeking to distinguish yourself from your mother is not motivated by “rational” behavior at all. The feminist argument is that to move towards a successor to a masculine knowledge, is to move away from a knowledge constructed as “always defined exclusively against women.”50 Both men and women need to move away from the construction of knowledge as “other” towards a reciprocal understanding of knowledge. It is worth reiterating that such a move is not linked to women or men categorically, but is a standpoint that either women or men can appropriate in order to view knowledge in a different and, as feminists would argue, better and more constructive light. The goal of investigating feminist epistemologies is not to argue that there is a superior female way of knowing, but rather is to contribute to the process of creating a “successor epistemology” that will lead to a gender-neutral construction of knowledge, where both women and men can function and where both women and men create their futures within a “degendered social order.”51

How might these epistemological frameworks be related to intellectual property? Two examples help highlight the values associated with women’s creative work and can lead to an alternative view of the way intellectual property may look from a gendered perspective. The first example highlights the difference between craft and industrialized knowledge and illustrates the differences in knowledge construction.52 Knitting has long been considered a craft enterprise associated with women’s work.53 Virtually all knitters are women. There is a long history of sharing patterns among knitters, knitting is often communicated from parent or grandparent to child, and knitting circles were a popular method of doing productive labor while enjoying the company of other women.54 Within the past few years, knitters have noticed changes in the world of knitting. Where once patterns were published in easy-to-share formats with little concern for copyright, today’s knitting patterns come with strict prohibitions regarding sharing, copying, and producing knitted material for commercial purposes.55