introduction to ethics

Moral Orientation: Women’s

Suppressed Moral Perspective

“In the different voice of

women lies the truth of an

ethic of care,” Carol Gilligan.

From In a Different Voice

by Carol Gilligan, 1982.

NYU School of Law

Gilligan is a gender feminist

Kohberg’s 3 Levels Moral Dev.

 Preconventional level (childhood) motivation:

◦ To avoid punishment (1st stage)

◦ To get what you want (2nd stage)

 Conventional level - motivation is:

◦ Group Acceptance (1st stage)

◦ Loyalty to society & government (2nd stage)

 Postconventional - motivation is

◦ Rationality of law & of keeping commitments (stage 1)

◦ Universalizability principle (stage 2 – Kantian)

In the Ethics of Justice

Self as Adjudicator

Multiple others involved in the case

In the Ethics of Care

Self-and-others-in-relation

Interconnected web of repercussions

Top-

Down

theory

Norm: I must do the right thing Norm: I must keep relationships in tack

Childhood Developmental Priorities:

a Comparison in Gender Studies

 From dependency

to individuality: all

begin life in a relation

of dependent inequality

➢ To live need care

One Theory: Girls & the ‘Doubling of

Mother’ vs. Boys & Breaking Bonds

 To their mothers:

begin as dependent

➢ Sense of self-identity

in mother/child bond

➢ Girls: maternal bond

nurtured/developed

differently than boys

Identification with mother – Boys toward detachment

while girls mostly not so