feminism is a multifaceted and constantly evolving theoretical and political movement. This work therefore falls within the fields of the philosophy of education and, more particularly, in the debates between several philosophical movements calling for feminism. It seeks to assess the relevance of two of these philosophical approaches with regard to the construction of feminist pedagogy. This compares the approach to critical theory (close to materialist marxism and Frankfurt school) with the pragmatic approach (resulting from the work of Jane Addams and John Dewey) with the problem of “consciousness-grapes” in pedagogy. The latter presents difficulties with the critical approach which will be set out in the first part of the argument. The assumption of our work is that pragmatism can provide theoretical tools that respond to its difficulties and thus complement those of critical theory in favour of feminist pedagogy. Thus, the second part of our line of argument focuses on the epistemic interest of these educational tools offered by pragmatism. These are made possible by the epistemic valorisation of perplexity and empathy, and we will see how they make it possible to increase the effectiveness of ‘consciousness-raising’ in everyday teaching practices.