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Feminist Ethics and the Ethics of Care

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Title: Feminist Ethics and the Ethics of Care


1
Feminist Ethics and the Ethics of Care
2
What do you think?
  • Do you believe there is a female and a male way
    of moral thinking? Give an example.
  • If you think that males and females reason
    differently about moral matters, why to you think
    this is case? (biological, psycho-sexual, and
    socio-cultural)
  • Do you think women today have equal rights with
    men? Do you think they should? Why or why not?

3
What makes ethics feminist?
4
What makes ethics feminist?
  • Women have value, rights, virtues equal to men
  • Women are moral agents with as much ability to
    make sound moral judgments as men

5
What makes ethics feminist?
  • Values, virtues, rights, reasoning associated
    with men has been given higher status than those
    associated with women.
  • Moral theory needs to take into account womens
    ways of reasoning morally and virtues and values
    traditionally associated with women.

6
What makes ethics feminist?
  • Feminist ethics do not assume female superiority
  • Feminist ethics do not reject virtues and values
    associated with men
  • Feminist ethics do not reject careful reasoning

7
What makes ethics feminist?
  • Feminist ethics reject dualism
  • Body/soul
  • Physical/spiritual
  • Emotional/intellectual

8
What makes ethics feminist?
  • Feminist ethics reject essential hierarchy
  • natural hierarchy rejected
  • Functional or merited hierarchy accepted

9
What makes ethics feminist?
  • Feminist ethics seek to be
  • Holistic
  • Integrated
  • Egalitarian
  • Relational

10
Christian Feminist Ethics
  • Power of God as empowerment, not control
  • Creative power
  • Liberating power
  • Sustaining power
  • Rejection of divine command theory
  • Focus on fundamental principles, values, virtues
    instead of specific rules

11
Christian Feminist Ethics
  • Humankind created in the image of God
  • Life in community, relationship
  • Unity of body and spirit
  • Importance of justice as providing for the
    welfare of all, especially those on margins
  • Love and compassion as fundamental virtues

12
Christian Feminist Ethics
  • Subordination of women to men as result of human
    failure, not divine intention
  • Limitations on role of women as result of needs
    related to specific historical situations
  • Need for population ancient Israel/Judaism
  • Need to avoid persecution as minority group
    early Christian

13
Christian Feminist Ethics
  • Limitations on women due to cultural assumptions
  • Understanding of procreation
  • Social position as natural
  • Valuation of intellect over body and connection
    of woman to body

14
Differences in Feminist Ethics
  • Are there inherent differences between the
    virtues of men and those of women?
  • Are there inherent differences in the moral
    reasoning of men and women?
  • Do differences necessarily imply
    inferiority/superiority?

15
Differences in Feminist Ethics
  • Should virtues typically associated with women be
    considered
  • True virtues to be cultivated by men and women
  • Virtues specific to women, but of equal value to
    male virtues
  • Psychological traits of women specifically
  • Negative traits that should be rejected

16
What do you think?
  • Should society value womens virtues as equal to
    mens but clearly different?
  • Do inherent differences in men and women suggest
    that they should fill equal but different roles
    in society?
  • Do claims of inherent difference necessarily mean
    one is better than the other?

17
Mary Wollstonecraft
  • The morality of women and men is the same.
  • It appears to be different because the
    limitations that society imposes on women
    prevents them from developing positive moral
    traits.
  • Good traits become bad traits because of limited
    opportunities.

18
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
  • Womens virtues are superior to mens.
  • Yet, mens virtues have been the standard for the
    world.
  • The suppression of womens virtues has been
    detrimental to the world.
  • Self-denying benevolence is good,
  • But womens higher virtue is self-development.

19
Reinhold Neibuhr
  • Love for individuals
  • Justice for community
  • Virtue as self-giving, self-sacrifice

20
Valerie Saiving
  • Self-sacrifice is appropriate virtue for men
    whose vice is most often pride.
  • Womans biological experience leads her to be
    self-giving, sometimes to the point of being
    self-destructive.
  • Womans greatest virtue is not self-sacrifice,
    but self-fulfillment.

21
Ethics of Care
  • A type of virtue ethics
  • Identifies female virtue of care as central
  • Relational, concerned with community
  • Does not reject justice, but views it as
    insufficient.
  • Rejects theories of moral development that
    privilege disinterested reason

22
Kohlbergs Stages of Moral Development
  • Punishment and obedience children do as told
  • Instrumental relativist you scratch my back and
    Ill scratch yours
  • Conformity fit into group
  • Law and order duty, respect for authority
  • Social contract do as please so long as not
    harm others
  • Universal ethical principle transcends
    conventional morality

23
Carol Gilligans Challenge
  • Kohlbergs work used only men to define stages,
    then judged women morally inferior
  • Kohlberg biased by western ethical traditions
    focus on rights and rules
  • Kohlbergs work failed to recognize womens
    language of relationship and responsibility

24
Gilligan and Womens Moral Language
  • Women speak of benefitting and hurting others,
    i.e. obligation to help and not harm
  • Women view ethical issues in context of
    relationship
  • Womens morality is personal, particular
  • Personal relationships provide model for other
    relationships

25
Gilligan and Womens Moral Thinking
  • Women empathize with others
  • Woman seek to solve problems through talking
    about them and gaining mutual understanding
  • Caring and compassion are key virtues
  • Meeting the needs of others is key obligation

26
Gilligans Levels of Moral Thinking
  • Level One women overemphasize interests of their
    own selves whats best for me
  • Level Two women overemphasize others interests
    whats best for others
  • Level Three women weave own interests with those
    of others whats best for us as a relational
    unit

27
Gilligan tries to define a common morality for
men and women
  • Gilligan acknowledges criticism that her levels
    are gender specific.
  • However, she has observed that women use BOTH the
    language of care and the language of justice
  • While men tend to use only justice.
  • She believes U.S. society suppresses the
    nurturant side of males and, therefore,
  • Limits their moral reasoning

28
Issues related to ethics of care
  • Are there differences between mens and womens
    moral reasoning?
  • If so, what is the source of these differences?
  • Does defining womens morality in terms of
    nurturing reinforce traditional role
    distinctions?
  • If there are differences, is one superior to the
    other?
  • Can/should both men and women adopt a combination
    of the two approaches?

29
What do you think? Wonder?
  • What is your response to feminist ethics? An
    ethics of care?
  • What question does this discussion raise for you?
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