Epistemic Coercion

In cases of self-gaslighting, the subject worries that other people will be skeptical of one of her beliefs—for instance, the belief that she has been sexually harassed. Prompted by this worry, she scrutinizes her original belief and ultimately gives it up. This kind of self-doubt is sometimes presented as one of the characteristic harms that women face under sexism, but it is difficult to say what exactly the harm could consist in. I suggest that self-gaslighting is morally problematic because it involves a coerced change in the way that the subject structures her inquiry.