This paper brings together ideas from feminist epistemology and critical theory to initiate a conversation on repressed or distorted communication. It argues that current feminist epistemological studies of women's ways of knowing, making sense, and solving problems can and should inform attempts to empower democratic dialogues and restructure the public sphere. The paper makes this argument by examining some feminist deconstructions of the gendered silences cultivated by androcentric theories of political discourse and participatory democracy; exploring the promises of feminist reconstructions of models of rationality, communication, and community--"motherwit"--as well as some of the limitations of these models as vehicles for recreating participatory democracy; reviewing what we know about gendered differences in strategies and structures for organizing social action; and speculating on how feminist materialism can contribute to emancipatory attempts to recreate dialogue and democracy. The paper is in seven sections: (1) Introduction: Social Capital and Socially Structured Silences; (2) Gendered Silences; (3) Reconstructing the Public Sphere: The Limitations of Motherwit; (4) Beyond the Kitchen Sink: How Women Conceive and Organize Social Action; (5) Gendered Organizational Discourse; (6) Women's Organizational Strategies; and (7) Implications: Breaking the Silences in Theories of Democratic Discourse. Forty-eight references are attached. (SR)
