Feminist Ethics Essay Research Paper Most people

Feminist Ethics Essay, Research Paper

Most people assume that the philosophical story can be told entirely by the men

who dominate it. They ignore the insights and perspectives of nonwhites and women

who make up the majority of the world, while at the same time realizing that if asked,

they would say that everyone’s voice is equally important. Without realizing it, or maybe

some individuals willingly enter into a social contract that does not allow everyone to be

treated equally. Women have been treated as lesser peoples for ages and it is only

recently that these women have begun to fight back against the discrimination that has

been forced upon them for so many oppressing centuries.

The feminist critique begins by looking at the differences between men and

women and the male dominated society in which we live. Women are treated differently

from men practically the moment they are born. As children, little girls are given dolls

and boys are given cars to play with, without checking to see which one each is most

likely to enjoy. We treat the two in different manners, speak to them in different voices,

and praise them for different behavior. With this sort of conduct it is not a spectacle that

women and men grow up with contrasting views and divergent life experiences.

The idea of gender equality has several different aspects. Feminists agree that

there should be gender equality, but they don’t inevitably agree on what is female and

male human nature, nor on what exactly our procedures should be in order to conflict

gender discrimination. The philosophies of feminism are in a process of development,

responding to the past, present, and the challenges of the future. One aspect is classical

feminism, which asks that men and women be considered persons first and sexual beings

second. Another is difference feminism, which relays that women and men have

primarily different qualities and that both genders should learn from one another.

Radical feminism, that has sometimes received bad press because some radical feminists

may seem to be extremists, is a facet of feminism that seeks out and exposes the root of

the problem of gender discrimination. There is also a form of feminism that is severely

criticized by many feminists, called equity feminism. An equity feminist holds that the

battle for equality has been won, that we should not think of women as victims of a

patriarchy any longer, and that we can now adopt any kind of gender roles we like

because gender discrimination is a thing of the past.

If women’s and men’s minds’ and ways of thinking have matured in such different

ways, how then can we expect that only Caucasian men are able to explain all there is to

know about the world. In Alison Jaggar’s “Feminist Ethics: Some Issues for the

Nineties” she lists three criteria for a feminist ethical theory.

1. Guide to Actions – The theory must be practical, transitional, and nonutopian.

It must be an extension of politics instead of a retreat from it. It should also be

sensitive to symbolic meanings, as well as realizing the consequences for actions

as gendered subjects in a male dominated society. It must contain conceptual

resources for identifying and acknowledging varieties of struggles women have

been labored with. It must recognize the often unnoticed ways in which women

and people of the underclass and of color have refused domination and

spurned cooperation while perceiving that collisions are inevitable and it must

also acknowledge that totally clean hands in such a situation is an impossibility.

2. Guide to Moral Issues and Intimate Relationships – Since much of women’s

struggle has been in the kitchen and the bedroom, as well as on the factory floor

and in the face of dilemma, a second specification for feminist ethics is that it

should be able to handle moral issues in both public and private domains. It must

also provide guidance on the matter of intimate relationships, such as affection

and sexuality. The doctrine must also contain guidelines for dealing with large

numbers of people, strangers included.

3. Takes Moral Experiences of All Women Seriously – Feminist ethics must take

the experiences of women seriously, though not uncritically. An essential respect

for women’s moral experience is a necessity to acknowledging women’s capacities

as moralists and to defying conventional stereotypes of women as less than whole

moral agents–as childlike or ‘natural’. It seems likely to suppose that women’s

distinctive social experience may make them principally responsive regarding the

implications of domination, especially gender domination, and particularly well

equipped to detect the male bias that governs so much of Western moral theory.

Alison Jaggar’s view of feminism is active, engaged, and political. She wants

people who think and write about ethics to also be active in supporting it. Also, for

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