ABSTRACT

As gendered beings in a society with a history of patriarchy, women and men inherit different pasts and consequently different social expectations, lines of communication, opportunities, and barriers. This chapter examines a more historically oriented view of women and ethics preserving, without glorifying women's moral sensibilities, the idea that attention to women's lives can deepen and correct modern Western ethical thinking. It describes a tension between the two kinds of feminist critique represented by Carol Gilligan and Mary Wollstonecraft, the former flattering both sexes, the latter flattering neither, and both focusing on maternal and adult heterosexual relationships. The chapter explores what more is needed to make that "corrective hypothesis" more plausible. It also examines the sense of responsibility attaching to informal, often personal relationships, contrasting it with that of formal and impersonal ones, and attaching to it independently of a contrast between justice and care.