The analysis presents findings from the author's studies of deviant women over a period of 20 years to support the conclusion that the concept of standpoint needs further analysis. The discussion also links this approach to the work of other writers, including Smart and Benhabib, who have referred to women's resistance to forms of categorization. The author argues that research on women should include a focus on the effects of conducting that research in both the short term and the long term, because some groups of women, including deviant women, have been transformed or have transformed themselves as a result both of modern feminism and of the research directed at them. 62 references (Author abstract modified)