Nancy Hartsock

Nancy C. M. Hartsock (1943–2015) was a professor of Political Science and Women Studies (now Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies) at the University of Washington in 1984.[1]

Nancy Hartsock
Born1943 (1943)
DiedMarch 19, 2015(2015-03-19) (aged 72)
Seattle
NationalityAmerican
Notable work
The Feminist Standpoint (essay)
InstitutionsUniversity of Washington
Main interests
Feminist epistemology and standpoint theory

Personal life and education

Hartsock was born in 1943 in a Methodist lower-middle class family, in Ogden, Utah.[2] She attended Wellesley College. While there, Hartsock was involved in the Wellesley Civil Rights Group. This group provided tutoring in Roxbury and Boston, Massachusetts, as well as working with the Boston NAACP.[2]

After finishing college, Hartsock went to get her Masters Degree from the University of Chicago. There, she got involved with a community organization group called The Woodlawn Organization, which was started by activist Saul Alinksky.[2]

When Martin Luther King brought the Civil Rights movements north, Hartsock marched to help this movement.[2] After this march, she then help start a graduate student woman's caucus in Political Science.[2]

Hartsock received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1972. She was a practiced musician and prior to her dissertation, Hartsock built and played the harpsichord. Hartsock also expressed interest in equestrianism, food, travel and art.[1]

In 1985 Hartsock was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer and lived for 30 more years. Hartsock died on March 19, 2015 in Seattle, Washington.[1]

Career

Hartsock was a feminist philosopher. She was known for her work in feminist epistemology and standpoint theory, especially the 1983 essay "The Feminist Standpoint",[3] which also integrated Melanie Klein's theories on psychoanalysis and the Oedipal crisis. Her standpoint theory derived from Marxism, which claims that the proletariat has a distinctive perspective on social relations and that only this perspective reveals the truth. She drew an analogy between the industrial labor of the proletariat and the domestic labor of women to show that women can also have a distinctive standpoint.

The Feminist Standpoint Revisited and Other Essays was then published in 1998.[1]

Hartsock was the first woman to be hired by the University of Michigan, where she taught in the Political Science Department. After a 3 year period, she moved to Washington DC and took a course at IPS on feminist theory in 1973.[2] She then took part in the Quest staff and was in the subscription department where she did writing and editing. Quest lasted for almost 10 years.[2]

Once she left Quest, she taught Political Science at Johns Hopkins. There she also helped take part in the effort to bring Woman's Studies to the University. Several years after, she moved to the University of Washington and learned that the Woman's Studies at Johns Hopkins was now a course.[2]

Later, she focused her attention on woman’s labor. Specifically, in the political economic dynamics of globalization. Hartsock then retired in 2009.[1]

Selected bibliography

Books
  • Hartsock, Nancy (1983). Money, sex, and power: toward a feminist historical materialism. New York: Longman. ISBN 9780582282803.
  • Hartsock, Nancy (1998). The feminist standpoint revisited and other essays. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 9780813315584.

Chapters in books
  • Hartsock, Nancy (February 28, 1983), Discovering Reality. "The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism", in Harding, Sandra.pp. 283–310 [4]
  • Hartsock, Nancy (1997), "The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism", in Nicholson, Linda (ed.), The second wave: a reader in feminist theory, New York: Routledge, pp. 216–240, ISBN 9780415917612.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hartsock, Nancy (2004), "The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism", in Harding, Sandra; Hintikka, Merrill B. (eds.), The feminist standpoint theory reader: intellectual and political controversies, New York: Routledge, pp. 35–54, ISBN 9780415945011.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) Available online.
  • Sisterhood is Powerful. Short entry explaining the remarks that professors made about the Woman's Caucus in 1970

Journal articles
Also available as:Hartsock, Nancy (1981), "Political change: two perspectives on power", in Bunch, Charlotte (ed.), Building feminist theory: essays from "Quest", New York, New York: Longman, pp. 3–19, ISBN 9780582282100.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Also available as:Hartsock, Nancy (1989), "Postmodernism and political change: issues for feminist theory", in Hartsock, Nancy; Przybylowicz, Donna; McCallum, Pamela (eds.), Cultural Critique, Cary, North Carolina: Oxford University Press, OCLC 60609387.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
See also: Hekman, Susan (Winter 1997). "Truth and method: feminist standpoint theory revisited". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 22 (2): 341–365. doi:10.1086/495159. JSTOR 3175275.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Memberships and awards
  • President of the Western Political Science Association (1994–95)
  • Co-founder of the Center for Women & Democracy in Seattle, WA, Founding Director (1999-2000)
  • Mentor of Distinction Award from the American Political Science Association Women’s Caucus (1993, won)[1]

Legacy

Prior to her retirement in 2009 Hartsock established the Nancy C.M. Hartsock Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Feminist Theory. Students from any college, and from any department can apply.[1]

Further reading
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References
  1. "Passing of Nancy Hartsock". University of Washington. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  2. Hartmann, Heidi; Bravo, Ellen; Bunch, Charlotte; Hartsock, Nancy; Spalter-Roth, Roberta; Williams, Linda; Blanco, Maria (1996). "Bringing Together Feminist Theory and Practice: A Collective Interview". Signs. 21 (4): 917–951. doi:10.1086/495126. ISSN 0097-9740. JSTOR 3175029.
  3. Hartsock, Nancy (2004), "The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism", in Harding, Sandra (ed.), The feminist standpoint theory reader: intellectual and political controversies, New York: Routledge, pp. 35–54, ISBN 9780415945011.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) Available online.
  4. Hartsock, Nancy C. M. (1983). "The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism". In Harding, Sandra; Hintikka, Merrill B. (eds.). Discovering Reality. Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Synthese Library. 161. Springer Netherlands. pp. 283–310. doi:10.1007/0-306-48017-4_15. ISBN 978-0-306-48017-1.
  5. Allen, Amy (2016), "Feminist Perspectives on Power", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2019-12-18
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