Standpoint Theory

Sandra Harding & Julia Wood

Standpoint is a place from which we view the world around us.

Standpoint refers to how we view the world around us. How social groups see things differently, especially women and minorities.

*Because standpoints are limited by our specific social locations, they are “partial” or incomplete

• “The social groups within which we are located powerfully shape what we experience and know as well as how we understand and communicate with ourselves, others, and the world.” (Griffin, 2009)

• Cultures are hierarchically ordered

- People at the top of hierarchy are the ones privileged to define what it means to be female, male or anything else.

-Feminist standpoint theorists suggest that women are under advantaged thus men are over advantaged. A gender difference that makes a huge difference

• Cultures organize themselves into hierarchically ordered social groups or classes.

- The way people talk can reveal a great deal about their social position and their level of education.

• “ Strong objectivity” starts from the perspectives of the marginalized, because they have more motivation to understand, less interest in the status quo. But these perspectives may be communicated in restricted language conventions shaped by the powerful.

• Strong objectivity refers to the strategy of starting research from the lives of women and other marginalized.

• “While all humans seem to seek both autonomy and connectedness, the relative amount of each that is preferred appears to differ rather consistently between genders.” (Wood)

Men tend to want more autonomy; women tend to want more connection

The masculine community uses speech to ACCOMPLISH TASKS, ASSERT SELF AND GAIN POWER.

The feminine community uses speech to BUILD RELATIONSHIP,INCLUDE OTHERS AND SHOW RESPONSIVENESS.

• Gender is a cultural construction rather than biological characteristics– a system of meanings that sculptures

individuals standpoints by most males and females in desperate material, social, and symbolic circumstances.

• Standpoint theorists suggest…–We can use the inequalities of gender,

race, class, and sexual orientation to observe how different locations within the social hierarchy tend to generate distinctive accounts of nature and social relationships...specifically…• When people speak from the opposite sides

of power relations, the perspective for the lives of the less powerful can provide more objective view of the more powerful.

Other sources

• Communication Between Cultures By Larry Samovar, Richard Porter, Edwin

McDanielhttp://www.slideshare.net/ajacob/30-intercultural-communication#