She was known for her work in feminist epistemology and standpoint theory, especially the essay "The Feminist Standpoint", which also integrated Melanie Klein"s theories on psychoanalysis and the Oedipal crisis. 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. Hartsock was professor of political science at the University of Washington.
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.
Money, sex, and power: toward a feminist historical materialism. Hartsock, Nancy (1997), "The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism", in Nicholson, Linda, The second wave: a reader in feminist theory, New York: Routledge, pp. 216–240.
Hartsock, Nancy (2004), "The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism", in Harding, Sandra.
Hintikka, Merrill B., The feminist standpoint theory reader: intellectual and political controversies, New York: Routledge, pp. "Postmodernism and political change: issues for feminist theory". Also available as:Hartsock, Nancy (1989), "Postmodernism and political change: issues for feminist theory", in Hartsock, Nancy.
Przybylowicz, Donna; McCallum, Pamela, Cultural Critique, special issue northern
