Feminism and the ethics of care (original) (raw)
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Ethics in women’s health: A pathway to gender equity
Advances in Medical Ethics
The differences between women's and men's experiences of health and illness are well known. Gender-specific medicine needs to restore equilibrium in order to understand the different clinical signs, diagnostic procedures, and therapeutic needs of diseases in men and women. This new dimension of medicine needs investment in research and health policy. If health professionals and healthcare organizations do not systematically take gender differences into account, inequities may arise and endure. Most discussions of gender involving an ethical perspective begin with the argument that women and men should be regarded as being of equal moral value. Where there are no relevant differences between them, then fairness and justice dictate that they should be treated equally, but if differences in needs exist, service planning should take this into account. Under these circumstances, equity as well as equality should be a guiding principle. The promotion of greater equality between men and women has also become a crucial issue in the bioethical debate, even if there is some confusion about the meaning of equality in this context, and especially of how this can be obtained. Biological differences cannot be removed, but their potentially harmful effects can be mitigated through social policies that take them properly into account, and through health research, policies and projects that give due attention to gender considerations and promote gender equity between women and men.
Feminine Virtues or Feminist Virtues? The Debate on Care Ethics Revisited 1
In this paper, I would like to offer a reinterpretation of care ethics both as a feminist perspective on moral reflection and as an interesting remapping of the moral domain in itself. The feminist nature of care ethics can be understood in different terms. The leading idea of this paper is that the effort of distinguishing these terms may have important implications for a more structured philosophical understanding of our account of care ethics (and therefore of ethics). As I hope will become clear in what follows, this can be thought of in terms of distinguishing-at least metaphorically, if not technically-between considering care ethics as an ethics which puts at its centre (more traditional) "feminine virtues" or alternatively (some new) "feminist virtues".
Medicalization occurs when an aspect of embodied humanity is scrutinized by the medical industry, claimed as pathological, and subsumed under medical surveillance and intervention. Numerous critiques of medicalization appear in academic literature, often put forth by bioethicists who use a variety of “lenses” to make their case. This presentation will focus on feminist/s critiques of medicalization, which offer an alternative narrative of sickness and health. These narratives give authority to the experiences of the (female) person as a patient, thus providing an alternative to (male) technocratic understandings of the body and medicine. I will first describe the philosophical origins of medicalization through the theory of the gaze—developed by Jacques Lacan; the medical gaze—identified by Michel Foucault; and the male gaze—described by Laura Mulvey. Then, I will present multifaceted feminist critiques of medicalization. Feminist critiques of medicalization raise the concerns of political minorities and are particularly salient when reproductive health is at stake (Kristina Gupta, Barbara Andolsen, Adrienne Rich), but are not limited to this provincial domain. Rather, objections to patriarchal medicine are interdisciplinary and draw on transfeminism (Jack Halberstam, Alexandre Baril) and Crip feminism (Petra Kuppers, Alison Kafer) additionally. Feminist/s working in bioethics tend to regard Western medicine with a hermeneutics of suspicion, thus seeking to protect women from medical exploitation. Without essentializing gender, I will conclude the paper by considering the much-needed “critical distance” that feminism has put between the physician and the patient and the continual need for iconoclasm in bioethics, particularly from feminism/s.
Feminine Virtues or Feminist Virtues? The Debate on Care Ethics Revisited
In this paper, I would like to offer a reinterpretation of care ethics both as a feminist perspective on moral reflection and as an interesting remapping of the moral domain in itself. The feminist nature of care ethics can be understood in different terms. The leading idea of this paper is that the effort of distinguishing these terms may have important implications for a more structured philosophical understanding of our account of care ethics (and therefore of ethics). As I hope will become clear in what follows, this can be thought of in terms of distinguishing – at least metaphorically, if not technically – between considering care ethics as an ethics which puts at its centre (more traditional) " feminine virtues " or alternatively (some new) " feminist virtues " .
The Ethics of Care: Valuing or Essentialising Women’s Work?
Springer eBooks, 2020
A major theme of ethics, introduced by feminist philosophers in the 1980s, concerns the role of care in human life. While the importance of care has historically been neglected by philosophy, some argue that it should be placed at the centre of our ethical systems and understood as a locus of distinctive virtues that have been wrongly devalued as feminine. Whether caring reflects a characteristically feminine set of virtues has been a source of controversy, with some arguing that women have different ethical approaches from men, while others argue this has no basis in an essential sexual or gender difference. Despite these important questions, it is valuable to explore what an ethics looks like that places central importance on relations of care.
Medicalization, Medical Necessity, and Feminist Medicine
Bioethics, 2001
New and proposed medical technologies continually challenge our vision of what constitutes appropriate medical treatment. As scholars and consumers grapple with the meaning of innovation, one common critical theme to surface is that it constitutes undesirable medicalization. But we are embodied creatures who can often benefit from medical knowledge; in addition, rejection of medicalization may be in some cases based on an untenable appeal to nature. Harnessing the power of medicine for women's welfare requires us to rethink the goals of medicine as well as implement fundamental reforms.
Feminism, gender medicine and beyond: a feminist analysis of "gender medicine
International Journal for Equity in Health
The feminist women’s health movement empowered women’s knowledge regarding their health and battled against paternalistic and oppressive practices within healthcare systems. Gender Medicine (GM) is a new discipline that studies the effect of sex/gender on general health. The international society for gender medicine (IGM) was embraced by the FDA and granted funds by the European Union to formulate policies for medical practice and research.We conducted a review of IGM publications and policy statements in scientific journals and popular media. We found that while biological differences between men and women are emphasized, the impact of society on women is under- represented. The effect of gender-related violence, race, ethnic conflicts, poverty, immigration and discrimination on women’s health is seldom recognized. Contrary to feminist practice, GM is practiced by physicians and scientists, neglecting voices of other disciplines and of women themselves.In this article we show that ...
Introduction: Philosophy of Sex and Gender in Gender Medicine
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