standpoint theory

standpoint theory, a feminist theoretical perspective that argues that knowledge stems from social position. The perspective denies that traditional science is objective and suggests that research and theory have ignored and marginalized women and feminist ways of thinking. The theory emerged from the Marxist argument that people from an oppressed class have special access to knowledge that is not available to those from a privileged class. In the 1970s feminist writers inspired by that Marxist insight began to examine how inequalities between men and women influence knowledge production. Their work is related to epistemology, the branch of philosophy that examines the nature and origins of knowledge, and stresses that knowledge is always socially situated. In societies stratified by gender and other categories, such as race and class, one’s social positions shape what one can know.

The American feminist theorist Sandra Harding coined the term standpoint theory to categorize epistemologies that emphasize women’s knowledge. She argued that it is easy for those at the top of social hierarchies to lose sight of real human relations and the true nature of social reality and thus miss critical questions about the social and natural world in their academic pursuits. In contrast, people at the bottom of social hierarchies have a unique standpoint that is a better starting point for scholarship. Although such people are often ignored, their marginalized positions actually make it easier for them to define important research questions and explain social and natural problems.

That perspective was shaped by the work of the Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith. In her book The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (1989), Smith argued that sociology has ignored and objectified women, making them the “Other.” She claimed that women’s experiences are fertile grounds for feminist knowledge and that by grounding sociological work in women’s everyday experiences, sociologists can ask new questions. For instance, Smith posited that because women have historically been the caregivers of society, men have been able to dedicate their energy to thinking about abstract concepts that are viewed as more valuable and important. Women’s activities are thus made invisible and seen as “natural,” rather than as part of human culture and history. If sociologists start from a female perspective, they can ask concrete questions about why women have been assigned to such activities and what the consequences are for social institutions such as education, the family, government, and the economy.

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Standpoint theorists also question objective empiricism—the idea that science can be objective through rigorous methodology. For instance, Harding stated that scientists have ignored their own androcentric and sexist research methods and results, despite their claims of neutrality, and that recognizing the standpoint of knowledge-producers makes people more aware of the power inherent in positions of scientific authority. According to standpoint theorists, when one starts from the perspective of women or other marginalized people, one is more likely to acknowledge the importance of standpoint and to create knowledge that is embodied, self-critical, and coherent.

The American sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990), proposed a form of standpoint theory that emphasized the perspective of African American women. Collins argued that the matrix of oppression—an interlocking system of race, gender, and class oppression and privilege—has given African American women a distinctive point of view from which to understand their marginalized status. She showed how African American women have been oppressed by the economic exploitation of their labour, the political denial of their rights, and the use of controlling cultural images that create damaging stereotypes, and she suggested that African American women can contribute something special to feminist scholarship. Collins called for inclusive scholarship that rejects knowledge that dehumanizes and objectifies people.

To address critiques that standpoint theory is essentialist in its implicit claim that there is a universal women’s standpoint, standpoint theorists have focused on the political aspects of social position by emphasizing a feminist rather than a women’s standpoint. Other work has also been careful not to lump women together and has extended Collins’s perspective to embrace the diverse standpoints of many marginalized groups (categories of race and ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, nationality, and citizenship status).