Feminist Standpoint Theory: Strengths and Weaknesses

Running head: FEMINIST STANDPOINT THEORY
Feminist Standpoint Theory
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1FEMINIST STANDPOINT THEORY
“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and
delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”
The above quoted lines of the author Virginia Woolf from her famous work “A Room
of One's Own” points to the role which women have been made to serve in the human
society since the traditional times. The female gender had to bear a considerable amount of
suppression as well as stigmatization since the ancient times on the score of their gender and
the traditional gender stereotypes attached with them (Garry and Pearsall 2015). The French
critic and author Simone de Beauvoir commenting about the suppression as well as
stigmatization which women had to receive since the ancient says in her famous work “The
Second Sex” (1949) that the women are not even considered as the sex which is opposite to
men rather they are viewed as the second sex that inhabits the human society. However, in
the present times it is seen that the condition has improved a bit with the changing nature of
the human world and the publication of the works of some of the prominent female writers
like Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson, Judith Butler, Kate
Millet, Margaret Atwood and others (Shakeshaft 2015). The views as well as the
standpoints taken by these women writers and others have contributed in a significant manner
towards the freedom and the status which women are enjoying in the society currently
(Shakeshaft 2015). This essay will discuss about the various precepts of the feminist
standpoint theory and more particularly focus on the strengths as well as weaknesses of this
theory.
The “Feminist Standpoint Theory” propounded by Dorothy Smith and Nancy
Hartsock in the early part of the 1980s is a major feminist theory which has sought to
empower the women of the present times in a significant manner (Luke and Gore 2014). The
various precepts of this particular theory are based on the concept of Marxism and seek to
use the theories of Karl Marx and other theorists belonging to the genre of Marxism in the

2FEMINIST STANDPOINT THEORY
wider canvas of feminism (Luke and Gore 2014). The primary precept of this particular
theory is grounded on fact that the various social sciences as well as the literary works of the
present times should be based on the framework of the concept of feminism. The theory
argues the fact that the lives of the women of the society are significantly different from the
lives of the women and therefore the literary works which are based on their lives should not
be interpreted on the basis of the framework of the masculine theories which had dominated
the interpretation of the literary since time immemorial (Meyers 2014). Thus, in a way it can
be said that this particular theory seeks to overthrown the hegemonic dominance of the
masculine theories which had held sway in the world of Literature and social sciences for a
very long time. Moreover, this theory argues the fact that the lives of the women who are
often seen as subordinates to the male members of the society by means of being the
suppressed class offers new insights into the working mechanisms of the world which is
seldom exhibited by the other theories (Meyers 2014). Thus, it can be said that this particular
theory by its insistence on the interpretation of the world and the various literary texts
through the lens of the lives of the women is likely to not only empower the women of the
society in a significant manner but at the same time is likely to provide a much broader
interpretation of the literary texts and the social works in a much more credible manner.
The recent popularity gained by this particular theory is an indicative of the relevancy
which this particular theory holds within the framework of the modern day society. For
example, one of the most important precepts of this particular feminist theory is the fact that
this particular theory seeks to show that the present framework of the society has been
constructed in such a manner that it upholds the suppression as well as the discrimination
which the women receive at the hands of the male members of the society (Lal 2018). This
particular aspect of the theory is totally in synchronization with the views of Judith Butler
which she articulated in her famous work “Gender trouble and the subversion of identity”