Men define the norm for defining knowledge. These and other ideas about gendered knowledge, and Code's debunking of claims for gender-neutrality, are familiar in women's studies. In fact, Code's careful documentation of these ideas makes the book very valuable as a bibliographic guide to scores of feminist essays over the last twenty years. But they are not new ideas, and Code's contribution is more one of synthesizing than of formulating a procedure or practice for the feminist epistemology she sees as a desirable goal. Her accomplishment is to prepare a site for this new epistemology, lay groundwork for the paradigm shift needed for re-visioning the world in ways that no longer contribute to political oppression of women and other devalued groups.
Objectivity is overemphasized in inquiry.
Code recommends reclaiming subjectivity and re-valuing the subject of inquiry. We are all interdependent, our subjectivity formed in relation to others. Our own personal locatedness in a particular time, place, class, etc., should be our point of departure for analysis. Her most telling point in this critique is that the knowledge gained from object-oriented simples is so shallow as to be not worth knowing, and, furthermore, is inadequate for inference into more complex realms. A feminist epistemology, she argues, is best carried out as an ongoing dialogue between thoughtful and mutually respectful friends.