The Theory:
You may move through the world with the understanding that everyone has their own background, personality, and portfolio full of experiences that they bring with them to every conversation. With this in mind, you may already be prepared to hear problems and ideas that you could have never considered or even been exposed to before since you do not live the same life as everyone in the world. This is the gist of feminist standpoint theory: due to our social situatedness in the world, we each come to see things from a different angle, learn particular bits of knowledge, observe certain processes and patterns, and for some of us, we become aware of our place in a society that is structured through the oppression of certain groups. The awareness of where we stand in “a society where the production of knowledge is controlled by a certain class, the knowledge produced will reflect the interests and values of that class” makes clear the ways certain marginalized groups might have knowledge that is not known to the dominating social class (Jaggar, 56). In knowing that their experiences fall outside of the dominating social class’s experience, and subsequently outside of the socially-recognized knowledge pool, marginalized persons can come to have a standpoint, wherein they realize their access to more knowledge than that which is known and accepted by the dominantly-situated group.
Standpoints, unlike natural individual perspectives, are earned through self-reflection, collaboration with others, and education. Everyone, as philosopher Sandra Harding states, has the potential to “open one’s eyes” to the world and see how society operates beyond the appearances of certain systems, like democracy or meritocracy (Harding, 1991, p. 8). When our eyes are opened, we understand that our social position is epistemically privileged or provides a better location to acquire knowledge from and not simply that our lives are simply unique, but are structured. Standpoints are not exclusive to any particular group since we no one can have a totalitarian view of society and even those who are within the dominantly-situated class will have some insights that are unseen by those who are oppressed since identity is intersectional, allowing for persons who are privileged in one way be stigmatized in another. However, when a specific group’s experience is deemed the most important, any knowledge that would not be known to that specific group is rendered unnecessary to them and their maintained ignorance does them no harm.
While the dominantly-situated group has no need to discover knowledge that falls outside of their experience, marginalized groups must learn how to navigate the dominantly-imposed way of life in order to survive. Therefore a standpoint is more readily available to marginalized groups as their experience demands their awareness of multiple realms of knowing (marginalized and dominantly-situated). Black theorist W.E.B. DuBois first theorized this multiplicity as “double consciousness” in relation to Black American experience, then later Marxist sociologist Dorothy Smith described this as “bifurcated consciousness” when theorizing about women’s exploited labor (Pittman, 2016; Smith, 58). A culminating example of this comes from Black feminist philosopher bell hooks who speaks of Black Americans living in Kentucky stating:
To be in the margin is to be part of the whole but outside the main body…Living as we did—on the edge—we developed a particular way of seeing reality. We looked both from the outside and in from the inside out. We focused our attention on the center as well as on the margin. We understood both. (hooks, xxi)
Marginalized groups and the individuals comprising those groups, through their oppressed social position, have access to knowledge that escapes the experiences of the dominantly-situated group and the awareness of their epistemically privileged position constitutes their standpoint.
Criticisms
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So all members from a certain marginalized group know the same thing? (Essentialism)
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This has been a contested point in feminist theory since women from different backgrounds will undoubtedly have different experiences, yet share the identity of women. This is where an intersectional approach becomes necessary in order not to essentialize the experience of certain groups. Black feminist philosophers have contributed to this understanding in relation to Black women and their experiences with white feminism (hooks, 2000; Collins, 1990) and feminist philosopher Uma Narayan discusses how feminist standpoint theory has some challenges in nonwestern feminism (Narayan, 2003).
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If all knowledge is socially situated, can there be objectivity? (Epistemic Relativism)
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This point makes the claim that if all knowledge is based on subjective experience, then there seems to be no place for objectivity. Sandra Harding counters this point by claiming standpoint theory pushes us to reflect and evaluate our standing in our social positioning, therefore a feminist objectivity becomes a “strong reflexivity” (Harding, 2003, 136).
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Now You…
Think of yourself and all the identities you consider part of your subjective experience. How might these identities influence and contribute to the way you view the world and how you interpret the events that occur in it? Are there lessons that you learned because you had to know how to survive in certain situations, or ways of acting that you learned were interpreted differently since they came from you and not someone else?
After considering these thoughts, think of how much knowledge you could be ignorant of since your life is specific and will lack insights from certain identities and experiences. I urge you to talk to someone different than you, in whatever way, and compare experiences and interpretations of certain events; you will both learn something.
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As always please continue to research this topic and improve on my modest attempt at an introduction between you and this idea in feminist philosophy…
Further Reading
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, New York and London: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Sandra Harding, ed., The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader New York and London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Solomon, Miriam. “Standpoint and Creativity”, Hypatia 24(4) 2009: 226-237.
Wylie, Alison. “Why Standpoint Matters,” The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. Edited by Sandra Harding. Routledge, 2003, p. 339-351. Print.
Citations
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, New York and London: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Harding, Sandra. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?. Cornell University Press (1991). Print.
—-“Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is Strong Objectivity?”, The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. Edited by Sandra Harding. Routledge, 2003, p. 127-140. Print.
hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000. Print.
Jameson, Frederic. “History and Class Consciousness as an ‘Unfinished Project’,” The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. Edited by Sandra Harding. Routledge, 2003, p. 143-151. Print.
Jaggar, Alison M. “Feminist Politics as Epistemology: The Standpoint of Women,” The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. Edited by Sandra Harding. Routledge, 2003, p. 55-66. Print.
Narayan, Uma. “History and Class Consciousness as an ‘Unfinished Project’,” The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. Edited by Sandra Harding. Routledge, 2003, p. 143-151. Print.
Pittman, John P. “Double Consciousness.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 21 Mar. 2016, plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-consciousness/.
thinkPhilosophy. “Hegel’s Master/Slave Dialectic In the Phenomenology of Spirit.” Medium, Medium, 6 Nov. 2018. Web.