Feminist Standpoint Theory

Feminist standpoint theory appears to have much in common with the social-science methodology of Michel Foucault, which locates the analyst in a posture of opposition to, or difference from, long-established intellectual traditions of the social structure in general and the sociological discipline in particular. Two related concepts associated with this posture are archeology and genealogy. Foucault's archeology refers to the overall structure of knowledge, which includes a shared "knowledge" about society, or the social structure itself, and operations within that structure that make clear its power relationships. Foucault resists being labeled structuralist as the term is commonly understood in social science (Foucault 1977). He makes a critique of prevailing structure of both society and its discourse, with a view toward reshaping perceptions (knowledge) of the archeology of that structure. What is most crucial about prevailing knowledge of social forms is that it is encased in a reified ideology of cultural norms and social power. "Truth," he explains, "is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power. Each socie

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social, and political policy in a way that redistributes the benefits of membership in civil society in order to provide women as a group with access to such benefits. Feminist ideology in its most general sense can be said to expose the lineaments of an environment that is hostile to women's interpretation of its content and comfortable in its status as the authoritative repository and transmitter of received cultural wisdom. Its agenda would be interpreted as social and political change for the benefit of women. Feminist advocacy, however, appears to belong to a different exercise from standpoint social theory. According to Hekman (1997), feminist advocacy, which is meant to privilege the female perspective of social analysis, should be identified with standpoint social theory, which does the same thing. Harding (1997) and others whom Hekman cites as proponents of feminist standpoint theory specifically and programmatically rejects this characterization. Feminist truth is not the objective of identification in standpoint theory, she says, but instead identifying relationships between knowledge and (social) power. Now both knowledge and power have historically have been located with men, both individually and as a group, but Har
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Approximate Word count = 2561
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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