
Basic answer: feminist care ethics is a project building on the work of Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings. Gilligan was critical of Kohlberg's stages of moral development.
What are some examples of feminist ethics?
- Stressing reason and rationality over other kinds of knowing
- An aggressive style of argument
- Using male experience and ignoring female experience
How is good determined ethics of care?
Ethics of Care Kantianism How is “good” Determined An act that nurtures the connections among those closest to each other. An act that is based on reason and duty, and would be considered ethical if everyone did the same. Most Noted Philosopher(s) Carol Gilligan, Nel Noddings Immanuel Kant Major Strengths We focus on those we love/who are closest to us.
What is feminist justice ethics?
Feminist justice ethics is a feminist view on morality which seeks to engage with, and ultimately transform, traditional universal approaches to ethics. Like most types of feminist ethics, feminist justice ethics looks at how gender is left out of mainstream ethical considerations. Mainstream ethics are argued to be male-oriented.
Should a Christian be a feminist?
“You can be a feminist, or you can be a Christian. But you can’t be a feminist and a Christian. A Christian wife must submit to her husband. A feminist does not submit to a man. Thus, feminism (as is currently defined) cant coexist with Christianity.” You can be a feminist, or you can be a Christian.

What is the meaning of feminist ethics?
Feminist Ethics aims “to understand, criticize, and correct” how gender operates within our moral beliefs and practices (Lindemann 2005, 11) and our methodological approaches to ethical theory.
What is the importance of feminist ethics?
The goal of feminist ethics is to create a plan that will hopefully end the social and political oppression of women. It is believed that the female perspective of the world can be shaped into a value theory.
What is an example of feminist ethics?
For example, the source of a mother's moral obligation to her infant is not the rights of the dependent person as a person, but rather the relationship that exists between the one in need and the one who is situated to meet the need.
Who gave the concept of feminist care ethics?
Carol Gilligan. While early strains of care ethics can be detected in the writings of feminist philosophers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Catherine and Harriet Beecher, and Charlotte Perkins, it was first most explicitly articulated by Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings in the early 1980s.
What are four characteristics of feminist ethics?
Four central themes that demonstrate both the breadth and depth of feminist ethical engagement are oppression, vulnerability and dependency, relationality, and the nonideal. Each of these themes responds to criticism of standard concepts and approaches in mainstream ethical theory.
What is an example of ethics of care?
Now let's say that an acquaintance tells you she just had a messy break-up with her boyfriend. You don't know her very well. However, you believe that 'showing you care' is the best response, so you give her a hug. This is an example of ethical caring.
What is the feminist model of ethical decision-making?
This approach involves a practitioner reflecting on their values and beliefs, in culmination with gender, race, class, and sexual/affectional preferences, and is mindful of how these factors also inform the opinions of all people involved in different ways.
What are feminist values?
It begins by establishing a link between feminine gender and feminist values, which include cooperation, respect, caring, nurturance, intercon- nection, justice, equity, honesty, sensitivity, perceptiveness, intuition, altruism, fair- ness, morality, and commitment.
What do feminist ethicists tend to think that our behavior should be based on?
Are central to moral motivation and moral discovery. Feminist ethicists tend to think that our behavior should be based on? A sensitive appreciation of the complexities of a situation.
What is the importance of ethics of care?
An ethics of care makes the nurturing of our immediate communities and the protecting of those closest to us the highest moral obligation. In business, an ethics of care asks us to review decisions not in terms of hard rules but in terms of how they will affect the people with whom we share our lives.
What are the basic features of ethics of care?
What are the basic features of the ethics of care? The basic features of the modern theory of ethics of care include the autonomy and identity of the patient, attentiveness, relational responsibility, competence of care, responsiveness, and plurality and solidarity in relationships.
What are the stages of ethic of care?
She came up with three stages of moral development that emphasize an ethics of care. Pre-conventional stage: women are focused on the self. Conventional stage: women have come to focus on their responsibilities towards others. Post-conventional stage: a woman has learned to see herself and others as interdependent.
What is the attitude of feminist ethics toward moral principles?
Feminists ethics is not a moral theory so much as an alternative way of looking at the concepts and concerns of the moral life. It's an approach focused on women's interests and experiences and devoted to supporting the moral equality of women and men.
What is the feminist model of ethical decision-making?
This approach involves a practitioner reflecting on their values and beliefs, in culmination with gender, race, class, and sexual/affectional preferences, and is mindful of how these factors also inform the opinions of all people involved in different ways.
What do feminist ethicists tend to think that our behavior should be based on?
Are central to moral motivation and moral discovery. Feminist ethicists tend to think that our behavior should be based on? A sensitive appreciation of the complexities of a situation.
What role do emotions play in feminist ethics?
First, some feminists emphasize the role of emotion in action; in particular, they stress the motive of care in prompting action. They do so for the reason that emotion in general, and care in particular, have been ignored or denigrated in traditional moral theory due to their association with women.
What is feminist care ethics?
Basic answer: feminist care ethics is a project building on the work of Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings. Gilligan was critical of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg came up with six stages of moral development (Kohlberg is a social scientist rather than philosopher) such that the apex of moral development is the ability to consider the abstract notion of justice. Gilligan objected and suggested instead that the epitome of being ethical is to have relations of care with others. In Kohlberg's study, only men tended to achieve this highest stage -- hence the objection to making this the "highest" being identified with feminism.
What is the idea behind ethics of care?
The idea behind the ethics of care is that ethics is not an isolated factor of an independent person. People are interdependent, and truly moral actions may most logically flow from feedback and empathic cycles rather than from internal principles or decisions.
What is care work?
Care work is associated with domestic life and femininity. In this view, care work is seen as natural, not requiring high levels of thinking and acting. Early childhood educators are seen as substitute mothers, providing an experience that acts as a “stand-in” for home and family. Instead, we propose that early childhood education institutions should be understood as providing enriched caring experiences that are different from mothering and parenting.
What is caring about care?
The Caring about Care project applies feminist ethics of care theories to unpack common misconceptions about early childhood educators’ practices (work) and to capture the complexities and challenges of caring for young children. In our project, we always think about care as ethical and feminist at the practice and policy level. On this page, we break down this theoretical framework, by exploring 3 questions:
What is complexity in care?
Complexity. Care is a way of living and being with others. It requires sensitivity to contextual nuances so that the ways educators and policy makers care is different for different children, families, and communities. The ethics of care is always concerned with the effects of care on care receivers and caregivers.
Is care a private responsibility?
In contemporary societies care is taken for granted. When care is acknowledged it is seen as a private responsibility. Care work is assigned along intersecting gender, class and race lines.
2. Definitions of Care
Because it depends upon contextual considerations, care is notoriously difficult to define. As Ruddick points out, at least three distinct but overlapping meanings of care have emerged in recent decades—an ethic defined in opposition to justice, a kind of labor, and a particular relationship (1998, 4).
3. Criticisms
A number of criticisms have been launched against care ethics, including that it is: a) a slave morality; b) empirically flawed; c) theoretically indistinct; d) parochial, e) essentialist, and f) ambiguous.
4. Feminine and Feminist Ethics
Because of its association with women, care ethics is often construed as a feminine ethic. Indeed, care ethics, feminine ethics, and feminist ethics are often treated as synonymous.
5. Relation to Other Theories
Care ethics originally developed as an alternative to the moral theories of Kantian deontology and Utilitarianism consequentialism, but it is thought to have affinities with numerous other moral theories, such as African ethics, David Hume’s sentimentalism, Aristotelian virtue ethics, the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, Levinasian ethics, and Confucianism.
6. Maternalism
As a theory rooted in practices of care, care ethics emerged in large part from analyses of the reasoning and activities associated with mothering.
7. International Relations
Care ethics was initially viewed as having little to say about international relations. With an emphasis on known persons and particular selves, care ethics did not seem to be a moral theory suited to guide relations with distant or hostile others.
8. Political Theory
As a political theory, care ethics examines questions of social justice, including the distribution of social benefits and burdens, legislation, governance, and claims of entitlement.
What are the qualities of a male and female ethics?
Men: talk in terms of hurting and benefiting others, reasoning they ought to do that which helped the people involved in a particular case at hand. The moral realm then in many ways be similar to the public domain of law and contract.
Why is care disregarded in ethics?
While ethics theories often focus on justice, care, an “equally valid moral perspective,” is usually disregarded because of male bias. The two perspectives are often pleasant-sounding, but a need for care point of view precedence exists. While truth is evident in both these statements, the problem of distinguishing between them becomes apparent ...
What does Gilligan say about ethics?
Ethics theories usually focus on justice alone. Gilligan concluded that care, something just as important, is usually disregarded in the interests of the male partiality present in the male creators of many ethical theories. Gilligan examines the male justice perspective saying, “From a justice perspective, the self as moral agent stands as ...
What is the primary moral obligation?
The primary obligation is not to act unfairly; impartiality and respectfulness are key virtues. Women: Morality is highly personal. It is the private and personal natural relations of family and friends that the model for other relations. The primary moral obligation is to prevent harm and to help people and not to turn away from those is need. Caring and compassion are key virtues. According to Kohlberg, the highest stage of moral development was supposed to be the stage in which an adult can be governed not by social pressure but by personal moral principles and a sense of justice.
What is the male moral perspective of justice?
The male moral perspective of justice is chiefly rooted in principles and rules, tending to deny the role of feelings and emotions. This sentiment is predominant in moral theories and echoes a male bias, according to Gilligan.
What is Nel Nodding's philosophy of care?
Ethics of care as a viable and valuable, alternative morality. Nel Nodding states ethics has been guided by LOGOS the masculine spirit whereas the more natural and perhaps stronger approach would be through EROS, the feminie spirit. Moral decisions are made in real situations.
What is moral decision?
Moral decisions are made in real situations. It is the recognition of and longing for relatedness that form the foundation of our ethics and the joy that accompanies fulfillment of our caring enhances our commitment to the ethical ideal that sustains as one-caring. Feminist Thought and Ethics of Care. (2017, Jan 29).
What is care focused feminist?from en.wikipedia.org
Care-focused feminism, alternatively called gender feminism, is a branch of feminist thought informed primarily by ethics of care as developed by Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings. This body of theory is critical of how caring is socially engendered, being assigned to women and consequently devalued. "Care-focused feminists regard women's capacity ...
What Is Ethics of Care?from study.com
Ethel is 89 years old and was just diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her doctor believes that she's got only a couple of months left to live. In that time, Ethel's health will deteriorate rapidly, and she will experience a lot of pain. Ethel wants to live out the rest of her good days with her family.
What is the role of Noddings in the feminist movement?from en.wikipedia.org
Noddings' care-focused feminism requires practical application of relational ethics, predicated on an ethic of care.
Why is the definition of the term "ethic of care" ambiguous?from en.wikipedia.org
Joan Tronto argues that the definition of the term "ethic of care" is ambiguous due in part to the lack of a central role it plays in moral theory.
What is moral decision?from graduateway.com
Moral decisions are made in real situations. It is the recognition of and longing for relatedness that form the foundation of our ethics and the joy that accompanies fulfillment of our caring enhances our commitment to the ethical ideal that sustains as one-caring. Feminist Thought and Ethics of Care. (2017, Jan 29).
Why is attentiveness important in ethics?from en.wikipedia.org
Attentiveness. Attentiveness is crucial to the ethics of care because care requires a recognition of others' needs in order to respond to them. The question which arises is the distinction between ignorance and inattentiveness.
Which branch of ethics studies the implications of medical practices and policies?from study.com
8. Bioethics is the branch of ethics that studies the implications of medical practices and policies.
What Is Ethics of Care?
Ethel is 89 years old and was just diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her doctor believes that she's got only a couple of months left to live. In that time, Ethel's health will deteriorate rapidly, and she will experience a lot of pain. Ethel wants to live out the rest of her good days with her family.
What is care ethics?
Care ethics is the exact opposite of that. The ethics of care theory believes that context can sometimes overrule justice and our universal code of conduct. This approach focuses more on the interconnectedness ...
What are some examples of care ethics?
One of the best examples of care ethics being used in modern times is in bioethics. Professions involved in medicine specifically deal with caring for others. As a result, care ethics has become a part of assessing both medical practices and policies.
What is slave morality?
The concept of slave morality is the idea that those who are oppressed often times develop moral codes that reaffirm submissive traits as good qualities. In this case, people believed that care ethics supported the notion of 'caring' when it may not be authentic or empowering.
What is an example of ethical caring?
For example, let's say your aunt tells you that she's just lost her job. You give her a hug in an act of affection. This is an example of natural caring. Now let's say that an acquaintance tells you she just had a messy break-up with her boyfriend. You don't know her very well. However, you believe that 'showing you care' is the best response, so you give her a hug. This is an example of ethical caring.
Who proposed that ethics should be focused on relationships instead of emphasizing autonomy and rules?
From the study, Gilligan proposed that ethics should be focused on relationships instead of emphasizing autonomy and rules. Her theory focused more on our connections with each other and situations being context dependent. Another woman, philosopher Nel Noddings, further contributed to the theory in the 1980s.
Is the ethics of care theory feminist or masculinist?
9. The ethics of care theory is deemed as both a feminist and masculinist approach to ethics.
