to existing norms of scientific inquiry. If projects are rigorously designed, hypotheses
properly tested and data soundly interpreted, then sexist prejudices can be dealt
with alongside all other prejudices – as thoroughly unscientific in character
(Hoffman, 2001: 55).
The more female researchers there are in the profession, the better, since women
are likely to be more sensitive to sexist prejudices than men. However, the question
is not one of female science, but of sound science. The fact is that women are
dramatically under-represented in the decision-making structures of the UN or in
legislative bodies or in the world of business – indeed in the ‘public’ world in general,
except perhaps in certain new social movements like the peace movement and in
certain professions. These facts can only be established through sound statistical
techniques, and they establish the existence of discrimination in ways that cannot
be ignored.
Feminist empiricism ensures that feminism has come of age, entering into
mainstream argument and debate.
Standpoint feminism
Standpoint feminism arose initially as a feminist version of the Marxist argument
that the proletariat had a superior view of society because it was the victim rather
than the beneficiary of the market. Standpoint theorists argue that because women
have been excluded from power – whether within societies or in international
organisations – they see the world differently from men.
Standpoint theorists differ in explaining whywomen have an alternative outlook.
Do women have a more respectful attitude towards nature than men, because they
menstruate and can give birth to children, or is it because they are socialised
differently, so that nature seems more precious to them than it does to many men?
Peace activists may likewise differ in accounting for the fact that women in general
are more likely to oppose war than men.
Whatever the emphasis placed upon nature or nurture, standpoint feminists
generally believe that women are different to men. One of the reasons why standpoint
feminists see women as more practically minded than men is because they often have
to undertake activity of a rather menial kind. Bryson refers to Marilyn French’s novel
The Women’s Room(1978) (quoted by Hartsock) in which a woman has the job of
washing a toilet and the floor and walls around it: an activity, says French, which
brings women ‘in touch with necessity’ and this is why they ‘are saner than men’
(Bryson, 1999: 23). Indeed, Hartsock seeks to redefine power as a capacity and not
as domination, arguing that women’s experience stresses connection and relationship
rather than individuality and competition (Hartsock, 1983: 253).
Postmodern feminism
Some make a distinction between postmodern feminism and feminist postmodernism.
The distinction, it seems to us, is not a helpful one and we use the two terms
indistinguishably. Those who say they are postmodern feminists but not feminist
postmodernists sometimes define postmodern feminism as ‘postmodernism with a
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