A Feminist Ethic and the New Romanticism Mothering as a Model of Moral Relations

Abstract

This paper claims that recent attempts to draw on the m a d experiences of women in order to articulate an ethic of care and compassion is a new romanticism. Like earlier romantic views, it is both attractive and potentially dangerous. The paper examines the basic claims of this new romanticism in order to identify both its strengths and weaknesses. I c0nclud.e that there are at least two versions of this new romanticism, one that relies priman'ly on the experiences of child-bearing in grounding an ethic of care and compassion, and a second that relies primarily on child-rearing. I suggest that the former version of the new romanticism is deeply fiwed because such a view ought to be unacceptable to women and w i l l be inaccessible to men.In their book, For Her Own Good, Barbara Ehrenreich and Dierdre English (1978) trace the dialectical movement between "romanticism" and "rationalism" that has characterized American feminist thought during the past 150 years. On the one hand, the romantics have wanted to claim a distinctive role and place for women, one that resists the dehumanizing values of a market economy. According to this view, women are more nurturing, tender, and caring than men and, thus, women's experience provides a corrective to an economic world that is competitive and unfeeling. Indeed, according to this view, insofar as women's place has been in the home, the home has been, in Christopher Lasch's words (1977), a "haven in a heartless world." The home, a place where a woman's experience dominates, has been a refuge, a clearing in the jungle, so to speak, carved out by a woman's care and compassion. On the other hand, the rationalists have argued for the importance of assimilation. According to this view (Ehrenreich and English 1978, 20), it is a mistake to identify distinctively womanly traits, for the goal is "to admit women into modem society on an equal footing with men." In order to gain admission, however, one must stress women's ability to compete successHypacia vol. 4, no. 2 (Summer 1989) 0 by Paul Lauritzen

Agonizing care: care ethics, agonistic feminism and a political theory of care

“…A number of feminists have taken up the cause of care ethics, and as a result, ‘care feminism’ is a prominent strand of contemporary feminist thought. However, care ethics is not without its critics, as these accounts of care have also sparked vigorous challenges (Lauritzen 1989; Hoagland 1990; Houston 1990; Puka 1990; Nelson 1992; Kittay 1999). Feminist scholars have argued that the relation of ‘care’ to dominant power structures and the social systems that propagate power remains largely under‐theorized.…”

Teachers' care in higher education: contesting gendered constructions

“…Thus when scholars turned their attention to the development of care ethics, they explicitly linked care to the feminine and the maternal (Gilligan 1982;Noddings 1984;Ruddick 1989). However, these care ethics have attracted criticisms of gender essentialism (Cloyes 2002;Lauritzen 1989), devaluing autonomy (Clement 1996), ignoring unequal power relationships and social structures (Hoagland 1991) andbeing 'colour-blind' (Beauboeuf-Lafontant 2005;Thompson 1998). A more detailed investigation of how care is conceptualised is required in order to reveal how it is gendered.…”

Les soins en péril : entre la nécessité et l’exclusion

“…Notons que les exigences ici discutées sont en parfaite concordance avec les dimensions de l'éthique des soins présentées par Lauritzen (1989) qui s'inspire des travaux de Gilligan (1982) et Noddings (1984. Se situant à l'intérieur d'un débat dans lequel sont recherchées les bases d'une nouvelle éthique ancrée dans l'expérience des femmes, particulièrement l'expérience de la maternité, il formule les éléments nodaux de ce qu'il nomme «une éthique du soin et de la compassion».…”