Feminist Social Work Research & Theory

This assignment delves into the realm of feminist social work research. It requires students to examine key texts and concepts that define feminist approaches within this field. The focus encompasses theoretical frameworks like standpoint theory and feminist empiricism, as well as practical implications for conducting research that centers women's experiences and challenges gender inequalities.

THEORETICAL
KNOWLEDGE

Ethnography refers to the scientific description of peoples and cultures with their
customs, habits and mutual differences. It is the systematic study of people and cultures. In this
context, the following essay will aid in demonstrating the feminists knowledge by underpinning
feminist standpoint theory (Bowell, 2011). Feminists standpoint theory proposed that social
science of feminism must be practices from the standpoint of women or a particular group of
women. Women standpoint epistemology or a feminist suggest to form women's experiences the
constituent of departure. In this context, the historical roots of the theory will be analysed and its
possible strengths and limitations will be identified in the essay.
According to Intemann, (2010) Feminism is extent of political movements, social
movements and ideologies that shares a joint objective which is to specify, launch, and
accomplish governmental, economical, individual, and social equality of genders. It quests to
establish learning and professional possibilities for women so that they view as equal as men.
Feminist anthropology does not have a single, logical explanation and is caught between battle
over the explanation and objectives of feminism and the multiple practices known collectively as
ethnography (Nicholson, 2013). Towards the end of the 1980s, debates emerged that problematic
feminist ethnography as a productive methodology. Women plays prominent and significant role
in the societies and shares a different level of knowledge that makes them stand at different
position in the society (Hesse-Biber, 2013). The theory was developed by Dorothy Smith which
visualise the social world from the perspective of women from their day to day life and manners
in which women interact and make social communication with other people.
Hesse-Biber, (2011) said that the three principle claim has been made by the feminist
standpoint theorists which were knowledge is socially located, Marginalised groups are socially
located in manner that form it much achievable for them to be cognizant of things and ask doubts
than it is for non marginalised and research on power relations which begins with the lives of
marginalised. Feminist standpoint theory emerged in 1970s in the Marxists feminists which can
be considered as both descriptive and normative. The theory emphasise relationship between
political and social power. As per Naples and Gurr, (2013) feminist standpoint theory aid in
contributing towards epistemology to methodological debates in natural and social science. The
theory helps in understanding the role of women in the society and political environment.
Researchers who contributed towards the theory focused on the ways, women live and being
treated in the society irrespective of cultures and civilisation. In history, the condition of women
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was considered as worse as she was not allowed to participate in any social events and were not
allowed even to vote for the political candidate (Alcoff and Potter, 2013).
The genealogy of feminist standpoint theory begins in Hegel’s account of the
master/slave dialectic, and subsequently in Marx and, particularly, Lukacs’ development of the
idea of the standpoint of the proletariat. Hegel argued that the oppressed slave can eventually
reach a state of freedom of consciousness as a result of her/his realization of self-consciousness
through struggles against the master, and via involvement through physical labour in projects
that enable her/him to fashion the world—to affect it in various ways (Olesen, Bryant and
Charmaz, 2010).
By carrying forward this idea of Hegel, Luckac's created a framework that gives the rise
to dialectic of class consciousness, which thereby give rise to notion of standpoint of proletariat.
The first wave of feminism was embarked in 19th century where women and revolutionists
demanded for equal contract, marriage and parenting rights in parts of US and UK. Beddoes and
Borrego, (2011) contends that by the end of 19th century numerous steps has been taken by the
government to provide certain rights to the women so that they can stand in the society and can
be seen equally.
The concept of standpoint means collective identify or consciousness. As opposed to the
Marxist theory it has a narrow meaning. The formation of standpoint in the political
accomplishment of those whose social area forms its embarking point which is not merely
ascribed from beyond that area. Women holds a different position in the society and must be
treated equally. According to Bardzell and Bardzell, (2011) the knowledge develops when
standpoint started getting emerged. This phenomena occurred only when the marginalised or
those individuals or groups which becomes invisible from the vantage points begins to
understand the social situations with regards with socio political environment and oppression.
Denzin and Lincoln, (2011) argues that due to rise in feminism movements and increase
in the number of revolution, many theories got emerged which includes feminist standpoint
theory. This shows the manner in which feminist standpoint theories are grounded in feminist
political practice. Women in every culture were treated unequally than men, which impacts on
their psychology and behaviour (Pedwell and Whitehead, 2012). Due to increase in number of
incidents and revolutions, feminism kept on increasing and demand for equal rights got
promulgates rapidly.
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As per de la Bellacasa, (2012) the concept of standpoint proposed that emergence of
standpoint is the collective process which involves recognition and acknowledgement of
marginalised who occupy less attention in the society. Thus, feminist standpoint theory emerged
from the concept where women were considered less important in male dominating society
(Landau, 2007). An agreement has been made between the theorists of feminists standpoint
which connotes that standpoint is not just a appearance that is used simply by the fact of being a
woman (Miller and Scholnick, 2014). It is the perspective that occupied by the position of being
marginalised or as the matter of fact of one's socio political position in the society.
Sandra Harding who was a feminists philosopher articulated the notion of strong
objectivity. Strong objectivity of the theory demonstrates the insights of feminists standpoint
theory which argues for the significance of women, starting from the experiences to those who
have been left out. The theory concentrates on the position of women in different cultural society
and helps them by providing the structure where they can able to represent them as a equal and
important part of the society (Carbin and Edenheim, 2013). Many researchers and philosophers
believe that standpoint would divide the women based on cultural and colour background. Black
feminism which was proposed by Patricia Hill Collins shows the collections of ideologies
writings and art that provide information about standpoint of and for black women of African
region. Feminist standpoint theory emerged in 1970s in the Marxists feminists which can be
considered as both descriptive and normative. The theory emphasise relationship between
political and social power.
As per McCann and Kim, (2013) feminist standpoint theory aid in contributing towards
epistemology to methodological debates in natural and social science. The theory helps in
understanding the role of women in the social and political environment. Researchers who
contributed towards the theory focused on the ways, women live and being treated in the society
irrespective of cultures and civilisation. In history, the condition of women was considered as
worse as she was not allowed to participate in any social events and were not allowed even to
vote for the political candidate. Kemp and Brandwein, (2010) argues that due to rise in feminism
movements and increase in the number of revolution, many theories got emerged which includes
feminist standpoint theory. This shows the manner in which feminist standpoint theories are
grounded in feminist political practice. Women in every culture were treated unequally than
men, which impacts on their psychology and behaviour. Due to increase in number of incidents
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and revolutions, feminism kept on increasing and demand for equal rights got promulgates
rapidly.
de la Bellacasa, (2011) said that feminists standpoint theory has been rank has one of the
most disputatious theory and has been found in many controversies which impacts on both
feminists and feminists scholars. Its core focus on the standpoint of women in the society by
providing them knowledge and several rights so that they can be considered as important as men
(Munson and Saulnier, 2014). Since feminist standpoint theories take the perspective that
question is foremost begins with women’s material experience and that epistemic benefits make
sure from within standpoints that emerge from that experience, they can mistakenly be
understood to espouse an essentialist universalism, according to which women are afforded
automatic epistemic privilege simply for the fact of their being women.
Gringeri, Wahab and Anderson-Nathe, (2010) argues that questioning is efficient from
women lives and standpoint emerge only when women embarked to question the society and
reflect upon those who question their existence. Thus, it implies that the theory helps in
understanding the feminism in effective way, and provides framework through which
ethnographer can comprehend the aspects of feminism and its impact on society and life of
women.
The theory has been selected in order to make the research more comprehensible and
efficient which helps the researcher to understand the aspects of feminism and ethnology.
Feminism and ethnology are two broad concepts that has been evolving since men begins to
understand the life of human being and society (Ackerly and True, 2010). Culture plays
prominent role that affects both the psychology and behaviour of men and women who lives in
different society following different codes and ethics. Feminism standpoint theory helps in
understanding how knowledge and education provided to women who lives in the society can
enhance their perception and they can be considered as important as men. Begins with the human
problem of induction, feminists empiricism has been suffered from most basic criticism of
foundationalism and empiricism (Edwards, 2014).
The traditional empiricism underestimates the role of feminists standpoint theory and
feminists empiricism overestimates the power of women vision to increase the objectivity.
Feminists standpoint theory stands on the belief of Marxist in epistemological superiority of
perspective of marginalised (Bart, 1998). These theories sheds light on importance of knowledge
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and reject the notion of unmediated truth that knowledge is always provided to particular person
residing on particular position in the socio historical landscape (Wyer, Barbercheck and Wayne,
2013).
The analyses by feminist have significantly enlighten the epistemological and political
consequences of male domination in every filed and philosophy including science and social
studies. These outcomes have serious and significant impact on the life of women. Serious
attention must be given to those who uncover these biases. It does not stop feminists
epistemologists as they ought to seek to construct a distinguish feminists epistemology which is
feminists standpoint theory of knowledge (Van der Tuin, 2011).
The theorists wish to reconstruct the theoretical structure which design epistemological
and scientific investigation. The motive of these theorists is to create a better visual of reality
than androcentric picture that currently prevails. Researchers have proposed various kinds of
theories ranging from scepticism which questions the possibility of knowledge to theories that
contends that seeking knowledge is possible to certain degree. In order to promote equality, it is
the duty and responsibility of the government and political authorities to make certain provisions
and legislation (Garry and Pearsall, 2015). Strategies can be formulated in order to reduce the
impact of cultural barriers so that women can enjoy equal rights as mens in the present society.
Thus, from the above essay, it can be understood that women plays important role in the
society and they must be provided with certain rights that increase their importance. In this
context, the following essay aid in understanding the feminists standpoint theory which was
proposed in order to educate about the women perspective in the society. As ethnography is
related with the study of people and culture, the theory has been selected in order to understand
the perspective of women by analysing the viewpoints of senior researchers and scholars.
Various aspects and concepts has been underpinned in this essay that demonstrates brief
understanding of the theory effectively and efficiently.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ackerly, B. and True, J., 2010, September. Back to the future: Feminist theory, activism, and
doing feminist research in an age of globalization. In Women's Studies International
Forum(Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 464-472). Pergamon.
Alcoff, L. and Potter, E. eds., 2013. Feminist epistemologies. Routledge.
Bardzell, S. and Bardzell, J., 2011, May. Towards a feminist HCI methodology: social science,
feminism, and HCI. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems (pp. 675-684). ACM.
Beddoes, K. and Borrego, M., 2011. Feminist theory in three engineering education journals:
1995–2008. Journal of Engineering Education, 100(2), pp.281-303.
Bowell, T., 2011. Feminist standpoint theory.
Carbin, M. and Edenheim, S., 2013. The intersectional turn in feminist theory: A dream of a
common language?. European Journal of Women's Studies, 20(3), pp.233-248.
de la Bellacasa, M.P., 2011. Matters of care in technoscience: Assembling neglected
things. Social studies of science, 41(1), pp.85-106.
de la Bellacasa, M.P., 2012. ‘Nothing comes without its world’: thinking with care. The
Sociological Review, 60(2), pp.197-216.
Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. eds., 2011. The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Sage.
Edwards, G., 2014. Standpoint theory, realism and the search for objectivity in the sociology of
education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35(2), pp.167-184.
Garry, A. and Pearsall, M. eds., 2015. Women, knowledge, and reality: Explorations in feminist
philosophy. Routledge.
Gringeri, C.E., Wahab, S. and Anderson-Nathe, B., 2010. What makes it feminist?: Mapping the
landscape of feminist social work research. Affilia, 25(4), pp.390-405.
Hesse-Biber, S.N. ed., 2011. Handbook of feminist research: Theory and praxis. SAGE
publications.
Hesse-Biber, S.N. ed., 2013. Feminist research practice: A primer. Sage Publications.
Intemann, K., 2010. 25 years of feminist empiricism and standpoint theory: Where are we
now?. Hypatia, 25(4), pp.778-796.
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Kemp, S.P. and Brandwein, R., 2010. Feminisms and social work in the United States: An
intertwined history. Affilia, 25(4), pp.341-364.
McCann, C. and Kim, S.K. eds., 2013. Feminist theory reader: Local and global perspectives.
Routledge.
Miller, P.H. and Scholnick, E.K. eds., 2014. Toward a feminist developmental psychology.
Routledge.
Munson, C. and Saulnier, C.F., 2014. Feminist theories and social work: Approaches and
applications. Routledge.
Naples, N.A. and Gurr, B., 2013. Feminist empiricism and standpoint theory. Feminist Research
Practice, edited by S. Hesse-Biber, pp.14-41.
Nicholson, L. ed., 2013. Feminism/postmodernism. Routledge.
Olesen, V.L., Bryant, A. and Charmaz, K., 2010. Feminist qualitative research and grounded
theory: Complexities, criticisms, and opportunities. The SAGE handbook of grounded
theory, pp.417-435.
Pedwell, C. and Whitehead, A., 2012. Affecting feminism: Questions of feeling in feminist
theory. Feminist Theory, 13(2), pp.115-129.
Van der Tuin, I., 2011, July. New feminist materialisms. In Women's Studies International
Forum (Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 271-277). Pergamon.
Wyer, M., Barbercheck, M., and Wayne, M. eds., 2013. Women, science, and technology: A
reader in feminist science studies. Routledge.
Online
Bart, J., 1998. Feminist Theories of Knowledge: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. [Online].
Available through:<http://www.dean.sbc.edu/bart.html>
Landau, I., 2007. Problems with Feminist Standpoint Theory in Science Education [Online].
Available through:<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11191-007-9131-
5#citeas>
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