Feminism and the Ethics of Care

Do Women and Men Think Differently about Ethics?

Traditional assumption about male female difference

stereotypes

men are rational
women are emotional

a cause -- or justification -- or imposition

women are inferior

Aristotle

can obey reason: suited to be followers
but can't formulate original reasons: not suited to be leaders

Kant

women "lack civil personality"
they're biologically mentally unsuited to take part in public life
a woman's place, rather, is in the home

Rousseau

said men and women are different, but neither is superior
nevertheless the differences

make men most suited to take part in public affairs
and suit women more to to private and domestic concerns

Initial feminist reaction: deny such differences altogether
More recent tendency

acknowledge there are differences
insist nevertheless that women are by no means inferior and men superior

women perfectly well suited take part in public affairs
and excercise command and authority

such would be a welcome corrective even to male bias

of traditional ethics
in politics and public affairs

Kohlberg's Stages of Development

Kohlberg's Six Developmental Stages & their imperatives

Punishment & Obedience: obeying authority to avoid punishment.
Individual Instrumental Purpose and Exchange: making "fair deals" with other to further one's ends.
Mutual Interpersonal Expectations and Conformity: keeping loyalty and trust with partners.
Social System and Conscience Maintenance: subordinating demands of personal relationships to following social group rules.
Prior Rights and Social Contract or Utility: personal relationships are subordinated to universal principles of justice.
Universal Ethical Principles: being faithful to abstract principles that all humanity should follow

Jake and Amy: both age 11

Question: Should Heinz steal the drug he can't afford that is needed to save his wife's life.
Jake: Heinz should steal the drug because

"a human life is worth more than money" because
the druggest can always get money "but Heinz can't get his wife back" because
"people are all different"

Amy: evades & hesitates

"there might be other ways beside stealing it": the story has made it clear there aren't
"If he stole the drug, he might save his wife, but if he did, he might have to go to jail, and then his wife might get sicker again, and he couldn't get more of the drug, and it might not be good. So [Heinz and the druggist] should really just talk it out and find some other way to make the money" (164-165)

Kohlbergian Analysis?

Jake has advanced to stage 4 or 5
Amy is back at stage 3

Gilligan's Objection

Initial Point: historical progression doesn't necessarily mean improvement

descriptive progression: people do go through these stages
not necessarily normative progress: doesn't follow that the later stages are better
"Contrary to the opinion of older people, it could turn out that age does not bring wisdom after all." (165)
Many folks, in my experience, pass to what I'll call Stage 7

Cynicism and Apathy
believing social group rules just serve the purposes of ruling elites and there are no "universal principles"

Gilligan challenges Kohlberg's assumption that "an ethic of principle is superior to an ethic of caring"

Amy & Jake reconsidered:

Amy's "evasive" answer is -- "he might have to go to jail, and then his wife might get sicker again" -- faces reality
Jake's principled answer is unrealistically simplistic

What Amy evinces is a feminine style not a lower stage of morality

"women's basic moral orientation is caring for others . . . in a personal way"
"not just being concerned with humanity in general"
sensitivity to others leads women to "`include in their judgment other points of view"
Gilligan says,

"Women's moral weakness, manifest in an apparent diffusion and confusion of judgment is thus inseperable from
women's moral strength, an overriding concern with relationships and responsibilities." (166)

Virgina Held's summation: "Caring, empathy, feeling with others, being sensitive to each other's feelings, all may be better guides to what morality requires in actual contexts than may abtract rules of reason or rational calculation, or at least they may be necessary components of an adequate morality." (166-167)

Is it True that Men and Women Think Differently?

What isn't true

that men are all uncaring
the women are all unprincipled

"So, even if there are different styles of moral thinking, there is no style that is exclusively male or female." (167)
Perhaps true, nevertheless,

that man on average are more inclined to the principled approach
and women on average more

size analogy

it's not true that every single man is larger than every single woman
nevertheless, women are typically smaller: men are typically larger

What Could Account for Such a Difference Between the Sexes?

Difference is socialization of boys and girls

women are socialized for more for home and hearth
men are socialized more for impersonal cooperation and competition in the public arena

Evolutionary psychological explanation

key biological difference

men can father hundreds of children
women can bear only one per nine months

resulting difference in optimum evolutionary strategies (optimum from the point of view of genetic "survival")

optimum male evolutionary strategy: sow as many wild oats as possible
optimum female strategy: invest heavily in each child and choose males who are willing to stay around and make a similar investment

resulting psychological difference: "women are more attracted than men to the values of the nuclear family" (169)

Implications for Moral Judgment

Family & Friends

Love is the paramount family & friendly value
Love vs. Duty

Traditional ethics focus on duty . . . take Kant . . . please

rules are the ultimate sources of moral value
only dutiful behavior -- undertaken purely out of respect for the moral law -- is morally creditable
if I resist the neighbor babe's come on

from duty and allegiance to principle that's very moral of me
if I resist just because I love my wife that's not moral -- not really

I'm just acting on my predominant inclination or desire
out of personal affection, not on principle

The love & duty paradox

loving acts performed because it's your duty
aren't truly loving

Love vs. Impartiality

Impartiality central to both Kantian and Utilitarian approaches

it's part of Rachel's minimum conception
but love is partial

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill characterizes the utilitarian stance as "`as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator'"
"that is not the standpoint of a parent and friend" (Rachels, 170)

Strength of the Ethics of Care: more adequately takes love into account

Helping Disadvantaged Children

Since care is "a personal, one-to-one matter"
"we have no obligation to help `the needy in the far regions of the earth'" (171)
Rachels: "Making personal relationships the whole of ethics seems as wrong-headed as ignoring them altogether."

akin to egoism
"My cousin and I against the world. My brother and I against my cousin."
Ghandi's remarks re: patriotism as egoism

the U.S. is the best country of which
MI is the best state of which
Lansing is the best city of which
the east side of Lansing is the best part of town
etc.

Animals

Care would only warrant concern for suffering of one's pets
If care were all that mattered the suffering of animals "in the far regions of the earth" or even the slaugherhouse across town would be of no consequence.
Seems misguided

feelings and intuitions are key elements in acting from care but can easily be misguided

if we don't care about the treatment of animals . . . maybe we should
not so long ago people in this country felt that slavery was o.k. -- they shouldn't have

personal attachment to the animal is morally of questionable relevance

"it may have a lot to do with how much satisfaction you get from helping"
"but it has nothing to do with the animal's needs or the good you could accomplish" (173)
"(Much the same, of course, may be said of the distant child's inability to thank you personally for the vaccination.)" (173)

Implications for Ethical Theory

Men and the Markeplace

Men dominate public life &in politics and business relations with others are typically impersonal, contractual, & often adversarial
Men's moral theories emphasize impersonal duty, contracts, the harmonization of competing interests & attendant calculation of costs and benefits

Women and the Home

Women traditionally dominate in the realm of private life in which relations are typically personal, informal, & cooperative
Women's morality emphasizes personal affinity, bonds of affection, loving sacrifice and commitment

From Care to the Ethics of Virtue

"To be loving, loyal, and dependable" as a friend or loved one

"is to be a certain kind of person
"and neither as a parent nor as a friend is it the kind of person who impartially `does his duty'." (174)

Virtue Theory: stresses "being a certain kind of person" over "doing ones duty"
Virtue Theory "seems well-suited to accomodate the values of both public and private life" (174)

there are private virtues, e.g., love and caring
there are also public virtues, e.g., justice and beneficence

Virtue Theory a broader approach incorporating the ethics of care

not exclusively a feminist project
"so closely tied to feminist ideas that Annette Baier dubs its male promoters `honorary women'"
"The verdict on the ethics of care will depend, ultimately, on the viability of the ethics of virtue." (174)