Femenist Ethics By Carol Gilligan

Feminist ethics is an ethical approach based on the belief that traditional ethical theorising has undervalued and/or underappreciated women's moral experience, which is largely male-dominated, and thus chooses to re-imagine ethics through a holistic feminist approach to transform it. Feminist Ethics is an attempt to revise, reformulate, or rethink traditional ethics; feminists have created a wide range of gender-centred ethical approaches.

 

•    Carol Gilligan, an American researcher, published the now-famous book 'In a Different Voice' in 1982. She laid out the findings of research into the various ways in which people approach thinking about ethical issues in this book.

 

•    She says at the start of this book, “I began to hear a distinction in these voices [of people talking about ethics] two ways of speaking about moral problems, two modes of describing the relationship between other and self”

 

•    These are the different voices of men and women talking about ethics, according to Gilligan; her book explores how men and women are differently situated in society, and how different approaches to ethics may emerge as a result. 

 

•    She summarises a body of psychoanalytic theory that suggests men build their identities by distinguishing themselves from others, whereas women build theirs through relationships. Men, it is claimed, have a harder time forming relationships, whereas women have a harder time distinguishing themselves from others.

 

•    According to Gilligan, different perspectives lead to different approaches to ethics. Of course, the findings of this study are divisive.

 

•    Carol Gilligan, like a few other feminists, has focused on issues concerning women's characteristics and behaviours, particularly those related to caregiving. 

 

•    Gilligan's ethical theory is based on the "communal nature of women." The theory is referred to as "ethics of care," as opposed to the more traditional male-oriented "ethics of justice." Feminist ethicists have developed a variety of viewpoints, with a focus on 

 

1.    Care in addition to (or in place of) justice

 

2.     Emphasis on terms like dependence and responsibility, as well as the need to develop ethical attitudes such as empathy and affection. 

 

3.    The importance of interpersonal relationships in moral decision-making 

 

4.     The importance of special ties that bind when making moral decisions – people close to you may have different moral responsibilities than others.

5.    Each moral decision is unique, context-dependent, and specific.

 

•    Although many forms of feminist ethics emphasise these features, it's worth noting that feminist ethics is frequently "classified" into the following categories:

 

A.    Feminine Ethics: This is usually thought of as the ethical writing that follows Gilligan -work the most closely, emphasizing care alongside (or instead of) justice. Nel Nodding's book Caring, which has been quite influential, albeit controversial, in developing ideas about caring in ethics, is one of the most important books in this tradition.

 

B.    Mothering as a Model for Thinking about Ethical Issues: Another important school of thought within feminist ethics uses mothering as a model for thinking about ethical issues. As Tong puts it, "maternal thinking is moral reasoning at its best" for this group of ethicists. Victoria Held and Sara Ruddick are two of the most important writers in this category.