DISCRIMINATION, FEMINIST NARRATIVES, AND POLICY ARGUMENTS

Gender-based discrimination or harms represent an important set of pro blems for policy communities. Because policy communities respond to rh etorical arguments about policy ideas, feminist scholars to be concern ed about the persuasion value of their policy-relevant arguments. This paper examines the persuasion value-of arguments based on feminist na rratives. Narratives look to women's experiences as key resources for social investigation, but they involve rhetorical tradeoffs. Some of t he important rhetorical advantages of narratives are partially offset by features characteristic of this research approach.