ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that it is appropriate for adult recipients of personal care to feel and express gratitude whenever care providers are inspired partly by benevolence, and deliver a real benefit in a manner that conveys respect for the recipient. It focuses on gratitude is consistent with important aspects of feminist ethics of care, including its attention to the particularities and vulnerabilities of caregivers and care recipients, and its concern with how relations of care are shaped by social hierarchies and public institutions. The chapter offers a general account of interpersonal gratitude and argue that it is important to think about gratitude in the context of caring labor. It also focuses on a feminist ethics of care, and draws on caring labor in which the recipients are adults and the care they receive meets needs they would find it difficult or impossible to meet on their own.
