There is tension between traditional science and a science that sees itself as socially and politically engaged. Whereas traditional science is interested in the pursuit of truth and places values out of bounds, the latter argues that socio-cultural values are inevitably bound up in scientific practice and moreover that that’s how it ought to be.
Feminists offer two objections to the notion that science is value-free or neutral.
Feminists have critiqued scientists for failing to disclose whose interests they are working in, (e.g - powerful institutions, such as policy centers, schools, hospitals, unions, immigration services, law enforcement, etc). These institutions have control over a lot of people who are voiceless in the research about them, like women and other minorities. Instead, these institutions have historically been under Western white men.
Traditional science tends frame problems in terms of 'what is wrong with the person who is experiencing it?', as opposed to 'what it is about the current social order that makes the problem likely?'.
E.g- What kind of people are likely to abuse drugs? Why is the working class so weak and disorganized?
One approach being used to look at some of these problems has been just to “add women” to the traditional framing as discussed above. So, “how can we raise undergraduate enrollments?” is just changed to “how can we raise undergraduate enrollments by adding more women?” The feminist alternative to this framing would be considering transforming undergraduate CS so that it is more accessible to women and relates to their needs.
So eventually, this boils down to these three philosophical commitments common to feminist research :
First is a categorical rejection of the notion that science is value-free.
The second commitment is to empirical accounts of human experience: “the experience of all human beings is valid and must not be excluded from our understandings,".
Third is feminism’s commitment to gender. This is a commitment to ensure that gender remains, in Helen Longino’s words, “a relevant axis of investigation,” that gender is not “being disappeared” any more in science
Feminist standpoint theory
Standpoint theory is a model that attempts to bring more transparency and accountability in research. It pays attention to the scientist's background as a factor in critically consuming data. The theory highlights knowledge that makes explicit its positioning and construction of power.
Feminist standpoint theory assumes that all knowledge attempts are socially situated and that its production is inevitably involved in acts of power. Just as in patriarchal societies, women’s knowledge is suppressed, a lot of marginalized groups' knowledge is invalidated. The theory advocates for these marginal viewpoints and experiences to expose assumptions in dominant research paradigms that distort knowledge. These alternative epistemologies introduce a new domain of user research—the “marginal” user.