Feminist Standpoint Epistemology

1465 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Relationship between women and power

What is a feminist standpoint epistemology? Evaluate Patricia Hill Collin’s feminist standpoint and her gender analysis of black political economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyse Patricia Hill Collin’s feminist standpoint and her gender analysis of black political economy. The first section will outline feminist standpoint epistemology, followed by an analysis that evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Collin’s framework. This will be demonstrated by deconstructing Collin’s work on intersectionality, the matrix of domination and her take on the private and public spheres. The objective of this paper is to articulate the extension of previous black feminist standpoints Collins builds upon, to provide a more sophisticated framework. …show more content…

These interrelated features demonstrate and analyse the fundamental impacts of power structures on knowledge, meanwhile advocating specific investigation that stems from standpoints emerging from shared political struggle of subjugated civilians (Allan, 2014). The objective of these standpoints is to acknowledge, analyse and draw upon power relationships that stimulate change, ultimately leading to more just societies (Solomos, 2011). From the perspective of women, feminist standpoint epistemology forces us to critically observe and understand society as a whole (Collins, 2006) The significance of black feminist standpoint epistemology is to encourage awareness to marginalized groups and provide mechanisms that enhance their position within society (Collins, …show more content…

Collins, P 1989, The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, U.S.A. Hartford Publishing 2015, Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination, viewed 3 September 2015, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/252.html John Solomos 2011, Patricia Hill Collins: Intersecting Oppressions, viewed 29 August 2017, https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/13299_Chapter_16_Web_Byte_Patricia_Hill_Collins.pdf. Patricia Hill Collins 2006, Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist thought, viewed 25 August 2017, http://users.clas.ufl.edu/marilynm/Theorizing_Black_America_Syllabus_files/Learning_from_the_Outsider_Within.pdf. Routledge 2016, Black Feminist Thought, viewed 3 September 2017,

Show More
Related

  • Patricia Hill Collins '' Intersectionality Is Not Neutral'

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s

    Read More

  • Analysis Of What Has Happened Here? By Elsa Barkley Brown

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    Brown stresses the importance of recognizing that being a woman is not extractable from the context in which one is a woman. She examines how both black and white women’s lives are shaped by race and gender, and how these affect life choices. Historically, women of color have filled roles previously attributed to white women

    Read More

  • Fannie Lou Hamer

    2204 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rooks, Noliwe. The Women Who Said, I AM. Vol. Sage: A Scholarly Journal On Black Women 1988.

    Read More

  • Kellner Intellectual Analysis

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her article “Black feminist thought in the matrix of domination” Collin states “Race, class and gender constitute axes of oppression that characterize black women’s experience within a more generalized matrix of domination.” By “matrix of domination” she means black women mostly affected oppression because of the race, class and gender factors of the matrix of domination but other group of people might be affected for other dimension of the matrix such as ethnicity and

    Read More

  • Slavery and the Life of Harriet Jacobs

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000

    Read More

  • On Being Young-A Woman-And Colored By Marita Bonner Summary

    1137 Words  | 3 Pages

    On Being Young-A Woman-and Colored an essay by Marita Bonner addresses what it means to be black women in a world of white privilege. Bonner reflects about a time when she was younger, how simple her life was, but as she grows older she is forced to work hard to live a life better than those around her. Ultimately, she is a woman living with the roles that women of all colors have been constrained to. Critics, within the last 20 years, believe that Marita Bonners’ essay primarily focuses on the double consciousness ; while others believe that she is focusing on gender , class , “economic hardships, and discrimination” . I argue that Bonner is writing her essay about the historical context of oppression forcing women into intersectional oppression by explaining the naturality of racial discrimination between black and white, how time and money equate to the American Dream, and lastly how gender discrimination silences women, specifically black women.

    Read More

  • Leith Mullings' On Our Own Terms: Race, Class, And Gender In The Lives Of African American Women

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    and the academic endeavour, to illuminate the experiences of African American women and to theorize from the materiality of their lives to broader issues of political economy, family, representation and transformation” (Mullings, page xi)

    Read More

  • Analysis Of At The Dark End Of The Street

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York, New York: Vintage Books. 2011.

    Read More

  • Moynihan Negro Family

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beale, Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female." An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. New York: New, 1995. 146. Print.

    Read More

  • The Importance of African-American Studies

    1857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Karenga, Malauna. Introduction to Black Studies. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press –Third Edition, 2002.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of The Fear Of Black Women

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the earlier forms of fetishizing over Saartjie Baartman in Europe, the dehumanization of black women as “mammies,” to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s controversial Moynihan Report in 1965, African and African American female identity has been under the direct possession of white people. White Americans have continued to define the black female’s position within society by creating her narrative based on inequitable economic and societal conditions as well as gender norms that have outlined what it means to be a “true” black woman. Her behavior and body has been examined [and understood] through her direct contrast to white women, her role in supporting the white race

    Read More

  • Dominicans In America

    2318 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ruiz, Delia. Women of Color in Modern Society. New York, NY: Harper and Row Press,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Patricia Hill Collins Learning From The Insider Within By Patia Hill Collins

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    Contemporary sociology grows from work of the past, this is no different in the manner that Patricia Hill Collins builds off W.E.B Du Bois understanding of double consciousness. In her essay, “Learning from the Insider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought”, Patricia Hill Collins analyses Black feminist thought through a discourse following three distinct themes that allow for Black Women within the field of sociology an unique perspective outside the boundaries. Collins diverges into the topic by breaking down the historical example of “outsider within” which provides black women a distinct point of critical lens that is beneficial. Following, Collins “[examines] the sociological significance of the Black feminist

    Read More

  • Maud Martha, by Gwendolyn Brooks

    2920 Words  | 6 Pages

    Black women's experiences and those of other women of color have never fit the private -public model.  Rather than trying to explain why Black women's work and family patterns deviate from the alleged norm, a more fruitful approach lies in challenging the very constructs of work and families themselves. ("Native")

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Feminist Theory: From Margin To Center By Bell Hooks

    1987 Words  | 4 Pages

    Among the many subjects covered in this book are the three classes of oppression: gender, race and class in addition to the ways in which they intersect. As well as the importance of the movement being all-inclusive, advocating the idea that feminism is in fact for everybody. The author also touches upon education, parenting and violence. She begins her book with her key argument, stating that feminist theory and the movement are mainly led by high class white women who disregarded the circumstances of underprivileged non-white women.

    Read More

More about Feminist Standpoint Epistemology

Open Document