Speaking the truth through lived experiences.(Essay)

The way we speak influences how we're heard. Unfortunately, our gender often results in the message being marginalized and lowers our credibility as witnesses.

Dr. Kelly Oliver, a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, cites the story of a female Holocaust survivor who witnessed the "historical" truth rather than the "factual" truth of the Jewish uprising at Auschwitz. Historians refuse to accept her account but psychoanalysts looking beyond "eyewitness testimony" see her as a credible witness to truth.

At the National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE) conference held at St. John's University in New York City in June, Dr. Jennifer Scuro, Dr. Maeve O'Donovan, and Dr. Devonya Havis spoke on the effects of endangered spaces and exclusionary practices.

Scuro is assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies at the College of New Rochelle in New Jersey; O'Donovan is assistant professor of philosophy at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland; Havis joined the philosophy department of New York's Canisius College this fall. They met as graduate students at Boston College MA.

Search for 'the truth'

Society is full of systems that "disorient, endanger and disable the bodies and voices of women." Yet we're not taken seriously when we confront these systems because our "truth" relies on lived experiences, not the "facts" created by systems in power.

Scuro finds that the young women at her women's college are unaware of the truth of privilege. "The young women in my classroom don't identify with the women around the world," she said. "They take on the language of the oppressors because they come from very poor backgrounds and want to enter the mainstream."