Standpoint Theory “One of the best ways to discover how the world works is to start from the standpoint of the margins.” Sandra Harding & Julia T. Wood

Key Ideas Understand that this theory is about examining how the power of the powerful is taken for granted; this theory offers a way to question the status quo This theory helps explain the significance of “standpoint” and its revelation of power structures This theory challenges concepts of “knowledge” and “truth” (Knowledge from nowhere vs. Local knowledge) It explains why marginalized people offer a less distorted view of the world

Standpoint A place from which to critically view the world around us. Viewpoint, perspective, outlook, position… “The social groups within which we are located powerfully shape what we experience and know as well as how we understand and communicate with ourselves, others, and the world.”

Influences Feminist Standpoint Rooted in: Philosophy and Literature What people “know” depends on which group they are in; the powerful control “received” knowledge Marx & Engels The poor can be society’s “ideal knowers.” Symbolic Interactionism Suggests that gender is socially constructed Postmodernism Suggests a critique of male-centered epistemologies

Standpoint Theory’s Central Tenet All scholarly inquiry should start from the lives of the marginalized.

Women as a Marginalized Group Wood does not attribute gender differences to biology, maternal instinct, or women’s intuition. She sees the difference between men and women as a result of the cultural expectations and treatment that each group receives from the others.

Women as a Marginalized Group Women are underadvantaged; men are overadvantaged. “Women” are not a monolithic group.

Why is Standpoint Theory Important? The social group that gets the chance to define the important problematics, concepts, assumptions, and hypotheses in a field will end up leaving its social fingerprints on the picture of the world.

Social Location Standpoint Theorists emphasize the importance of social location because they are convinced that people at the top of the societal hierarchy are the ones privileged to define what it means to be something in a given culture. Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.

Local Knowledge Knowledge situated in time, place, experience, and relative power, as opposed to knowledge from nowhere that’s supposedly value-free. Calls claims of “truth” into question.

All Knowledge is Partial However, “perspectives of subordinate groups are more complete and thus better than those of privileged groups in a society.”

Strong Objectivity The strategy of starting research from the lives of women and other marginalized groups, thus providing a less false view of reality.

Reasons Marginalized Perspectives Offer Less Distorted Perspective Marginalized people have more motivation to understand the perspective of the powerful than vice versa. Marginalized people have little reason to defend the status quo.

Standpoint of Black Feminist Thought “Intersecting Oppressions” put black women in a different marginalized place in society than either white women or black men.

Concluding Ideas Standpoints are relative and can’t be evaluated by any absolute criteria. (So, is the concept of Strong Objectivity inherently contradictory?) If all knowledge is tainted by the social location of the knower, then we would do well to start our search for truth from the perspective of people most sensitive to inequities of power. Minority standpoints can be a partial corrective to the biased knowledge that now passes for truth.