ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of key feminist theorists who share a focus on the ethics of care and dependence and traces the impact of their work on feminist ethics and political philosophy. It articulates the significance of this work for bioethics and illustrates the value of an ethics of care in identifying social structural weaknesses or gaps through examples drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2020. Most notably these include gaps in healthcare systems; the failure of welfare systems to provide adequate financial support for underemployed, casual, and precarious workers; and structural inadequacies in care provision in aged care facilities, nursing homes and disability support. Feminist contributions to care theory can assist in analyzing the causes and gendered impacts of these structural weaknesses.
