Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:02:38.663Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Paul Lauritzen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper claims that recent attempts to draw on the maternal 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 conclude that there are at least two versions of this new romanticism, one that relies primarily 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 flawed because such a view ought to be unacceptable to women and will be inaccessible to men.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 4 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Feminist Ethics and Medicine , Summer 1989 , pp. 29 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andolsen, Barbara Hilkert, Gudorf, Christine E., and Pellauer, Mary D. 1985. Women's consciousness, women's conscience. San Francisco: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Chodorow, Nancy. 1978. The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, Barbara and English, Deirdre. 1979. For her own good. New York: Anchor/Doubleday.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1987. Moral orientation and moral development. In Women and moral theory. Kittay, Eva Feder and Meyers, Diana T. eds., Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hauerwas, Stanley. 1977. Truthfulness and Tragedy. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Held, Virginia. 1987. Feminism and moral theory. In Women and Moral Theory. Kittay, Eva Feder and Meyers, Diana T. eds., Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder and Meyers, Diana T. eds., 1987. Women and Moral Theory. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lasch, Christopher. 1977. Haven in a heartless world. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Morgan, Marabel. 1973. The total woman. Old Tappan, NJ: F. H. Revell.Google Scholar
Noddings, Nel. 1984. Caring: A feminine approach to ethics & moral education. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rich, Adrienne. 1986. Of woman bom. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Rossi, Alice. 1977. A biosocial perspective on parenting. Daedalus 106:1–31.Google ScholarPubMed
Ruddick, Sara. 1984. Maternal thinking. In Mothering: Essays in feminist theory. Trebilcot, Joyce ed., Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld.Google Scholar
Smith, Ruth L. 1985. Feminism and the moral subject. In Women's consciousness, women's conscience. Hilkert Andolsen, Barbara, Gudorf, Christine E. and Pellauer, Mary D. eds., San Francisco: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Whitbeck, Caroline. 1984. The maternal instinct. In Mothering: Essays in feminist theory. Trebilcot, Joyce ed., Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld.Google Scholar