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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
Chapter 30
Feminist Standpoint Theory
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
• Feminist Standpoint Theory (FST) offers a framework for understanding women’s
positions relative to the systems of power.
• This framework is built on knowledge generated from the everyday lives of people—
acknowledging that individuals are active consumers of their own reality and that
individuals’ own perspectives are the most important sources of information about their
experiences (Johnston, Friedman, and Peach, 2011; Wood and Fixmer-Oraiz, 2017)
• The theory claims that women’s (and all people’s) experiences, knowledge, and
communication behaviors are shaped in large part by the social groups to which they
belong.
• Standpoints come from resisting those in power and refusing to accept the way society
defines their group (Wood, 2004).
• FST advocates criticizing the status quo because the status quo represents a power structure
of dominance and oppression.
II. Historical Foundations of Feminist Standpoint Theory
• Feminist Standpoint Theory is derived from Standpoint Theory, which originated in 1807,
when the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel discussed how the master–
slave relationship engendered different standpoints in its participants.
o Hegel wrote that although slaves and masters live in a common society, their
knowledge of that society is vastly different.
o He argued that there can be no single vision concerning social life. Each social group
perceives a partial view of society.
• Nancy Hartsock drew on Hegel’s ideas and Marxist theory to begin to adapt Standpoint
Theory for use in examining relations between women and men, thus creating Feminist
Standpoint Theory.
o Hartsock was concerned with the debates regarding feminism and Marxism that
occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s, focusing on the absence of women’s issues in
Marxist theory.
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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
o Hartsock was interested in expanding Marx’s account to include all human activity
rather than simply focusing on what was primarily male activity within capitalism.
o Hartsock suggested that it is Marx’s critique of class relationships rather than his
critique of capitalism that is most helpful to feminists.
• Hartsock applied Hegel’s concepts about masters and slaves and Marx’s notions of class
and capitalism to issues of sex (the biological categories of male and female) and gender
(the behavioral categories of masculinity and femininity).
o In some ways this complicates matters because there is no consensus on the exact
meaning of “feminist.” Many authors have noted that there are different kinds of
feminism (Barker and Jane, 2016).
o Feminism can be seen as a focus on women’s particular social position and a desire
to end any suppression based on sex or gender.
• In the early 1990s, Julia Wood (e.g., 1992) brought the tenets of FST to the field of
communication studies.
III. The Critique of Theory and Research by Feminist Theorists
• FST is a critical theory, but in many ways, it also expresses and embodies a critique of
other mainstream theories and approaches to research.
• The critique lodged by Feminist Standpoint theorists begins with the observation that most
research in the past has flowed from one common perspective: that of the White, middle-
class male.
o Some feminist researchers argue that traditional approaches to research inquiry are
male defined and block women’s unique perspectives.
o Thus, the critique continues, this White, middle-class male perspective has served to
silence any other perspective as a valued contributor to scientific knowledge
• It is important to keep in mind that although the feminist version of Standpoint Theory is
the one that is commonly conceptualized, Standpoint Theory can be used to analyze a
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
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o Sex or gender is a central focus for the theory.
o Sex or gender relations are viewed as problematic, and the theory seeks to understand
how sex or gender is related to inequities and contradictions.
o Sex or gender relations are viewed as changeable.
o Feminist theory can be used to challenge the status quo when the status quo debases
or devalues women.
• In addition, FST, as Hartsock conceptualizes it, rests on five specific assumptions about the
nature of social life. The five assumptions are as follows:
o Material life (or class position) structures and limits understandings of social
relations.
▪ The first assumption sets forth the notion that individuals’ location in the class
structure shapes and limits their understandings of social relations.
o When material life is structured in two opposing ways for two different groups, the
understanding of each will be an inversion of the other. When there is a dominant
and harmful.
▪ Feminist Standpoint Theory assumes that all standpoints are partial, but those
of the ruling class (or the ones in power) can actually harm those of the
subordinate group.
o The vision of the ruling group structures the material relations in which all groups are
forced to participate.
▪ The subordinate group develops a clearer vision of social life.
▪ With this clear vision, the subordinate group can see the inherent inhumanity in
the social order and can thus attempt to change the world for the better.
• This set of assumptions leads to the conclusion that although all standpoints are partial, the
standpoint of an oppressed group is formed through careful attention to the dominant
group.
o This isn’t true in reverse. Thus, members of oppressed groups have a more complete
standpoint than do members of dominant groups.
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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
• Added to these assumptions that characterize Hartsock’s Marxist view of Feminist
o All knowledge is a product of social activity, and thus no knowledge can be truly
objective.
▪ This belief states that knowledge is not an objective concept, but rather is
shaped subjectively by knowers.
▪ Knowledge evolves from experience and this experience is a subjective one.
o Cultural conditions “typically surrounding women’s lives produce experiences and
understandings that routinely differ from those produced by the conditions framing
men’s lives” (Wood, 1992, p. 14). These different understandings often produce
similar situations.
▪ In a study examining sexual harassment in the workplace, Debbie Dougherty
(2001) begins with a notion grounded in this assumption: while sexual
harassment may be dysfunctional for women, it may serve some functions for
men.
▪ She found that men interpreted sexual harassment as a form of coping behavior
for work-related stressors, a mode of therapy, and a means for demonstrating
camaraderie.
o It is a worthwhile endeavor to understand the distinctive features of women’s
experience.
▪ This belief deals with ontology, or what is worth knowing.
o The only way to know women’s experience is by attending to women’s
interpretations of this experience.
▪ It is a continuing goal for Feminist Standpoint theorists to develop new
methodologies that give voice to those who have been silenced previously.
V. Feminist Standpoint Theory and the Communication Field
• After Julia Wood introduced the theory to the communication field, Feminist Standpoint
Theory became popular with communication researchers.
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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
communication behavior and standpoints.
• One of the assumptions of the theory is that those who share a standpoint will also share
certain communication styles and practices.
• Roseann Mandziuk (2003) points out how communication, in the form of commemorative
shaping and transmitting standpoints.
o The theory points to the use of communication as a tool for changing the status quo
and producing change.
o The concepts of voice, speaking out, and speaking for others are important to
Feminist Standpoint Theory and Standpoint epistemology, and they are all concepts
rooted in communication.
VI. Key Concepts of Standpoint Theory
A. Voice
• Many scholars have observed that voice means something about people’s identity.
assertion.
B. Standpoint
• The central concept of the theory, standpoint is a location, shared by a group
experiencing outsider status, within the social structure, that lends a particular kind of
sense making to a person’s lived experience.
• The concept of engagement is amplified by researchers who distinguish between a
standpoint and a perspective (Hirschmann, 1997; O’Brien Hallstein, 2000).
o A perspective is shaped by experiences that are structured by a person’s place in
the social hierarchy.
o Standpoints are achieved through experiences of oppression added to active
engagement, reflection, and recognition of the political implications of these
experiences.
• An outsider within is a person in a normally marginalized social position who has
gained access to a more privileged location.
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
• Feminist Standpoint Theory argues that the lower positions on the hierarchy possess the
greatest accuracy in their standpoints, where accuracy refers to the ability to transcend
the limits of partial vision and see beyond one’s own specific social location.
C. Situated Knowledges
• Donna Haraway (1988) contributes the term situated knowledges, meaning that any
person’s knowledge is grounded in context and circumstances.
• Haraway’s concept suggests that knowledges are multiple and are situated in
experience.
D. Sexual Division of Labor
• Hartsock’s Marxist-inspired Feminist Standpoint Theory rests on the notion that men
and women engage in different occupations based on their sex, which results in a sexual
division of labor.
o Not only does this division simply assign people to different tasks based on sex,
• Nancy Hirschmann (1997) points out that a feminist standpoint “enables women to
identify the activities they perform in the home as ‘work’ and ‘labor,’ productive of
‘value,’ rather than simply the necessary and essential byproducts of ‘nature’ or the
function of biology which women ‘passively’ experience” (p. 81).
VII. Integration, Critique, and Closing
• Feminist Standpoint Theory has generated a great deal of research, interest, and spirited
controversy. This theory has a rich history employing critical methods, making it
qualitative in nature.
A. Utility
• The complaint most commonly leveled against Feminist Standpoint Theory revolves
o Essentialism obscures the diversity that exists among women.
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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
o Implicit (and often explicit) in this critique are the ways that many White women
researchers have excluded the standpoints and voices of women of color, women
essentialist views of women in one important way.
❖ The theory does not suggest that men and women are fundamentally
different (or have different essences)
❖ Rather, FST begins with the assumption that social and cultural
conditions that typically surround women’s lives produce different
experiences and understandings from the social and cultural
conditions typically surrounding men’s lives.
▪ Katrina Bell, Mark Orbe, Darlene Drummond, and Sakile Camara (2000)
of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism.
▪ Debbie Dougherty and Kathleen Krone (2000) also sought to apply Feminist
Standpoint Theory to a group of diverse women to capitalize on the creative
tensions between similarity and difference.
❖ The researchers found both commonality and difference among the
standpoints of the participants.
• Another area of criticism related to utility concerns the notion of dualisms, or dualistic
thinking. Dualisms usually imply a hierarchical relationship between the terms,
elevating one and devaluing the other.
o People typically want to associate men with one extreme and women with the
other.
o Feminist critics are usually concerned with the fact that dualisms force false
o O’Leary (1997) argues that Feminist Standpoint Theory does not present one with
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a sufficiently complex understanding of experience, and as a result, it still rests on
a dualism between subjective experience and objective truth.
Classroom Activities
1. Depiction of Sex Roles: Analyzing the Media’s Portrayal of Males and Females
Have students take a look at all the chapters and check for consistency in how things are
presented.
Objective: To assist students in recognizing the media’s portrayal of sex roles
Materials: “Depiction of Sex Roles” worksheet (given below)
Directions:
a. Divide students into groups, and provide each group with a copy of the “Depiction of
Sex Roles” worksheet.
b. Instruct students to complete the worksheet.
c. Lead a class discussion focusing on the specific roles the students observed and the
potential alternatives to these roles.
“Depiction of Sex Roles” Worksheet
Directions: As a group, come up with an example of each category of television show listed
below. Make sure that all members of your group are familiar with the show. List the ways
that males are portrayed in the shows and the ways that females are portrayed.
Specifically, focus on the communication that is portrayed.
Portrayal of Males
Portrayal of Females
Family show,
1960s or 1970s
Family show,
1980s or 1990s
Show depicting the
workplace, 1960s
or 1970s
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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
West, Introducing Communication Theory, 6e
Show depicting the
workplace, 1980s
or 1990s
2. Taking a Stand: Investigating the Presence of Women’s and Men’s Movements
Objective: To increase students’ awareness of the presence of women’s and men’s groups
on their campus or in their local community, to learn the goals of these various
organizations, and to identify their impact on communication between the sexes
Materials: None
Directions:
a. Divide students into groups.
b. Ask the groups to conduct research and identify various women’s and men’s groups
information may be obtained through the office of student organizations.
c. Instruct students to research the goals or purposes of a single movement. Possible
sources of information include documents provided by the groups and interviews
with group members.
d. Have students identify ways in which these groups may impact communication with
members of the opposite sex.
e. Have groups share their findings with the class.
3. Gender Differences
Objective: To encourage students to explore the ways our society and culture impose
different expectations for behavior based on sex differences
Materials: None
Directions:
a. Assign students to four groups. Try to make two of the groups mixed sex, and have
the remaining groups consist of one all-male group and one all-female group.
b. Ask students to respond to the following statements:
• “When men talk, they . . .”
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Chapter 30: Feminist Standpoint Theory
• “Men are expected to . . .”