presently emerging to address such genderblindness with the hope
of recognizing, validating, and addressing Bathsheba's dilemma.

Although feminist challenges have carved out spaces for them-
selves within rhetoric and composition circles, they hardly presume
theoretical consensus. Indeed, they define Bathsheba's dilemma dif-
ferently. ³ Some feminist challenges study women's construction
of knowledge claims (e.g., Mary Field Belenky, Elizabeth Flynn,
Carol Gilligan, Jane Tedesco); others study women's textual strate-
gies (e.g., Pamela Caughie, Mary P. Hiatt, bell hooks); others
study how rhetorical theories position women and Woman (e.g.,
Linda Brodkey, Margaret Fell, Susan Jarratt, Andrea Lunsford and
Lisa Ede); others study rhetorical theories that women themselves
have constructed (e.g., Cheryl Glenn, Barbara Johnson, C. Jan
Swearingen); still others study intersections of rhetorical theory
and pedagogy (e.g., Florence Howe, Susan Osborn, Marjorie
Curry Woods); or as Virginia Woolf claims about women and
literature in A Room of One's Own, they may study some combi-
nation thereof (3).

Many feminist challenges to the rhetorical traditions draw from
studies in other disciplines, interrogating their claims, methodolo-
gies, and assumptions in order to determine their implications for
the history, theory, and pedagogy of rhetoric and composition
studies (Horner 206). ⁴ An important implication that emerges
concerns methodology. Like feminist challenges to literary, his-
torical, and philosophical traditions, feminist challenges to the rhe-
torical traditions may employ a variety of interwoven moves: (1)
recovering, (2) rereading, (3) extrapolating, and (4) conceptualiz-
ing. ⁵

Recovering involves the archaeological project of discovering lost
or marginalized theories of rhetoric. Because Cary Nelson's three
axioms for recovering literary texts provide a means not only for
expanding canons but also for critiquing the criteria by which
canons are constructed, they could easily be adopted for rhetoric
and composition projects: (1) retain texts that were popular or
influential in particular periods, such as Ida B. Wells' speeches, a
move that will reconstruct history; (2) retain texts that people
repeatedly claim are worthless--for instance, Eudora Ramsey
Richardson's text on women's public speaking--a move that will
continually force us to critique our biases; and (3) recover writ-

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