Standpoint

A standpoint is ones perspective or stance and how one views an issue. A person’s standpoint is shaped by many influences such as a person’s race, class, culture, and gender. Because of this, it’s difficult to have a standpoint that is not biased due to these outside forces.

Hartsock talks about the “feminist standpoint” and “how womens lives differ systematically and structurally from those of men.” This idea that women’s lives differ from men is to say that women therefor experience the world and society around them differently, and it has an affect on their standpoint. A feminist standpoint is one that examines and sheds light on womens oppression and views the oppression as something that needs to be changed.