Feminism and the Ethics of Care

Are women and men equal?

Do women and men think differently about ethics?

That difference, is real or is it just a prejudice to justify subjugating women to men?

What does the video make us think? What idea does this video disprove?

Lets consider Kohlbergs studies and findings using the Heinzs Dilemma

"In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug-for his wife. Should the husband have done that?" (Kohlberg, 1963).

Pre-conventional Level
Stage of Punishment and Obedience
Stage of Individual Instrumental Purpose and Exchange

Conventional Level
Stage of Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships, and Conformity

Stage of Social System and Conscience Maintenance

Post-conventional Level:
Stage of Prior Rights and Social Contract or Utility
Stage of Universal Ethical Principles

Amy & Jake

They should really just talk it out and find some other way to make the money

Heinz should steal the drug. A human life is worth more than money

Gilligans Objection
Is an ethic of principle superior to an ethic that emphasizes intimacy, caring, and personal relationships? Why should we make any such assumption?

Gilligan suggests that womans basic moral orientation is caring for others -taking care of others in a personal way, not just being concerned for humanity in general- and attending to their needs.

Is it true that women and men think differently about ethics?

1. Even if they do think differently, the differences cannot be very great: they will be differences of emphasis, rather than differences in fundamental values. 2. The difference in moral thinking could be like that: Women might tipically be more attracted to a caring perspective even though not every woman is more caring than every man.

What Could Account for Such a Difference between the Sexes?

Women think differently because of the social role to which they are assigned

Womens nature as mothers somehow makes them natural caregivers

Implications for moral judgment

The ethics of care is perfectly suited to describe family and friends relations, because it begins with a conception of moral life as a network of relationships with specific other people, and it sees living well as caring for those people, attending to their needs, and keeping faith with them

Implications for moral judgment

2. The ethical life must include both caring personal relationships and a benevolent concern for people generally. The ethics of care will need to connect love with obligation. 3. The ethics of care doesnt offer a solid foundation for our moral concern to nonhuman animals.

Implications for ethical theory

Two kinds of ethical theory: 1) Being a certain kind of person. 2) Doing ones duty.
The ethics of care is close to Virtue Theory: being a moral person means having certain traits of character: being kind, generous, courageous, just, prudent; being loving, loyal, and dependable.