Feminist Ethics

 First, what is Feminism?

 According to Brannigan, p.179, its original meaning and impetus is the long-standing history
of control and dominance by men throughout the world, men who have not viewed women
as their equals.
 This suggests that Feminism is a reaction to a proposed injustice against women by men.

4 Kinds of Feminism

Nina Rosenstand classifies four basic types of feminism

 Classical Feminism
 Difference Feminism
 Equity Feminism
 Radical Feminism

1. Classical Feminism

 Classical feminism is characterized by focusing on the personhood of women, and their

status as morally equal to men in that regard.
 There is a strong focus on distinguishing between biologically based differences between
men and women, and socially constructed differences.
 The usual or historical view of women as the weaker sex, attributed to anatomical and
psychological differences, is rejected by arguments.
 Inability to excel in math and science
 Inability to compete in sports
 Inability to withstand physical hardship
 Inability to withstand psychological hardship
 These are all beliefs that classical feminists historically have argued against and rejected to
one degree or another.
 Brannigan, classifies Simone de Beauvior as a classical feminist.
 De Beauvior was Jean-Paul Sartres close friend and developed her approach to feminism in
light of his philosophical work in Being and Nothingness.
 In The Second Sex, she applies Sartres view that there is no such thing as human nature to
her status as a woman, resulting in the view that womanliness is equally a construct of
consciousness without being a necessary part of her identity.
 After considering women from a historical, psychoanalytical, biological, literary, mythical,
and personal lens she concludes that women are treated as Other, as Alien, in a world
defined, determined, and controlled by men.

2. Difference Feminism

 In contrast to Classical Feminism, Difference Feminism asserts that despite the equal moral
status of men and women as persons, there are genuine differences between the sexes and
those differences need not all be considered equal.
 Carol Gilligan (1936 -), a Harvard psychologist, is the most prominent proponent of the
view.
  Gilligans book, In a Different Voice, argues that there are differences between how men and
women, boys and girls, reason morally.
 Her work is a reaction to the work of her colleague, child psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg
(1927-1987).
 Kohlberg conducted experiments by which he concluded that boys mature morally ahead of
girls.
 Kohlberg had identified six stages of moral development

 Stage of punishment and obedience

 Stage of individual instrumental purpose and
exchange
 Stage of mutual interpersonal expectations,
relationships, and conformity
 Stage of social system and consciousness
maintenance
 Stage of prior rights and social contract
 Stage of universal ethical principles

 In responding to a scenario about whether to steal in order to secure a life-saving drug, boys
typically appealed to principles (4 through 6), while girls asked why, instead of stealing, the
person couldnt just explain his circumstances better and avoid having to steal (reasoning at
stage 3).
 Gilligan agrees that the experiment shows that boys and girls reason differently, but
disagrees that boys reasoning is more morally mature.
 Brannigan represents Gilligans critique of Kohlbergs test as reflecting a 2 fold bias
 His position represents the enduring Western philosophical bias against the role of feelings
and emotions since it assumes logical analysis and reasoning to be the most important
faculty of the human psyche.
 His position clearly and unfairly affronts women on the premise that they are less apt to
think in terms of reasoned rules or principles.
 Gilligans emphasis and defense of feelings and emotions in moral decision making, an ethic
of care in her terminology, is tempered by these concessions
 She does not assert that an ethic of care is superior to one grounded on appeal to rules and
principles.
 She does not claim that womens approach is better than mens.
 She suggests they are both necessary and must be
integrated for good moral reasoning.

3. Equity Feminism

 Equity feminism is contrasted with gender feminists that pose men and women as enemies.
 In Who Stole Feminism? Christina Hoff Sommers suggests that now that women have
achieved a significant level of social equality with men, they should get on with pursuing
their talents and using the freedoms won by earlier feminists.
 Her article is a response to gender feminists who censured her for her comments regarding
the scene in Gone With the Wind when Rhett Butler carries Scarlett OHara up the stairs.
Gender feminists consider the scene a de facto endorsement of rape, while Sommers did
not.
  The presumption that men collectively are engaged in keeping women down invites
feminist bonding in a resentful community, . . . American feminists are guided by women
who believe what they call the male hegemony or the sex gender system, a misogynous
culture that socializes women to be docile and submissive to the controlling gender.
 Sommers defends the original spirit of behind feminism, that of classical feminism.

4. Radical Feminism

 Rather than meaning extreme feminism or gender feminism, radical feminism is simply an
endorsement of equity feminism, with the caveat that while legal and some social equality
has been achieved, there remains less obvious inequalities that need to be addressed.

 Examples from Brannigan include

 Free sexual activity among men is condoned while it is not among women
 Mens careers are still assigned more importance than those of women
 Men are still paid better than women
 Womens sports are considered second-class
 Kids are showing interest in Ken and Barbie dolls again!

 To further illustrate, Brannigan turns to the claim that standards of beauty are determined
by men.
 Women still view themselves as persons needing to be attractive to men.
 Where in particular are these values expressed?
 The fashion industry
 The cosmetics industry
 Cosmetic surgeries such as breast augmentation are considered established by male values.

Criticisms of Feminist Ethics

 Going back to the original impetus for a feminist ethics the long-standing history of control
and dominance by men throughout the world, men who have not viewed women as their
equals.
 Why blame men?
 Why not blame the necessary structure of social evolution (from hunter-gatherer to
nomadic herders, to simple farming, to complex or intensive agricultural societies, etc.) and
its necessary divisions of labor that perhaps required a certain childbearing, childrearing,
and homemaking roles for women?
 Arent men placed in their roles by economic and
social structure requirements as well?

 Brannigan renders Gilligans division of moral reasoning by gender as:

Women tend to consider the human dynamics within particular situations, whereas men
tend to think more in terms of specific rules and principles.

He points out that once we get specific in looking at a particular case, the differences
seem to disappear.
 Focusing on the details in a human relationship is part of what any good Aristotelian would
do, using the intellectual virtue of prudence to determine just what would constitute
kindness or generosity in a particular case

 Similarly, even a Kantian realizes that the Categorical Imperatives first material formulation
focuses on treating other persons as ends with intrinsic value, and never merely as a means
or a tool.
 Does such reasoning really seem paradigmatically male?

REFERENCES:

 Nathan Nobis, Feminist Ethics Without Feminist

Ethical Theory
 http//homepage.uab.edu/nnobis/papers/feminist-eth
ics.pdf
 Stanfords Encyclopedia Article on Feminist
Ethics
 http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-ethics/