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Summary of Feminist Ethics by Alison M. Jaguar

Feminist approaches to ethics are distinguished by their explicit commitment to re-writing the male biases perceived in traditional ethics that manifest the rationalization of women’s subordination, or disregard women’s moral experience. On the other hand, feminist ethics start with the convictions that the subordination of women is morally wrong and women’s moral experience is as worthy of respect as that of men. Feminist ethics goals are articulating the moral critiques of practices and actions that perpetuate women’s subordination, prescribing ways of resisting such actions that are morally justifiable, and envisioning morally desirable alternatives which promote women’s emancipation (Baker, Catherine, 141) In essence, the primary goal of feminist ethics is to foster theoretical understandings of the nature of morality that allow women to be treated respectfully. Feminist ethics emerged in the late 1060s as part of the general resurgence of feminist activism characterized by an unprecedented explosion about feminist ethical debates. The debates were among the first to occur in public and the academic course. They articulated topics ranging from domestic labor, abortion, the equality of opportunity, rape, compulsory heterosexuality, and the portrayal of women in the media. With time, feminists heightened their ethical concerns about reproductive technology, pornography, militarism, surrogate motherhood, environment, and the position of women within developing nations,

Since most feminist ethics occur in a western context making them a target of feminist critique. Critiques say that feminist criticisms do not show concern for the interest of women, neglect women, deny women’s moral agency, depreciation of feminine issues and devalue women’s moral experience. Not all feminists have endorsed the above criticisms and whenever they agree with the general statement, they disagree with its applicability. However, the truth is that feminist ethics have been associated with putting the interests of women first, accepting women as moral authorities, focusing exclusively on women’s issues, substituting feminine values with masculine values, or extrapolating directly into the moral experience of women. Putting the interest of women first is a highly recommended initiative of attaining women-centered ethics that transcend the covert bias of a supposed humanism that is grounded on male norms (Caswell, and Marika, 23). The main reason why feminist ethics are associated with putting the needs of others first is that feminists refuse to accept and be morally outraged by what they perceive as blatant immorality. Feminist ethics are concerned with addressing the special concerns of women, issues that have been neglected by modern theory but it cannot focus exclusively on such issues because feminism rejects moral issues and the notion that moral issues can be categorized as those that are special and those that are not of special concern to women.

Works Cited

Baker, Catherine, et al. “Encounters with the military: Toward a feminist ethics of critique?.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 18.1 (2016): 140-154.

Caswell, Michelle, and Marika Cifor. “From human rights to feminist ethics: radical empathy in the archives.” Archivaria 81.1 (2016): 23-43.