Women's Perspectives

Annette Bair and Marilyn Friedman have opposing views on whether women have distinct moral perspectives. Like Friedman, I believe that women have no different moral perspectives than men. Some people, like Bair, think that women base their moral perspectives on merely trust and love and men base theirs on justice. Friedman points out that care and justice coincide . People use justice to decide what is appropriate in caring relationships and care is brought into account when determining what is just. Since these two moral perspectives correspond, gender does not distinguish different moral perspectives.

Women becoming philosophers most likely sparked the debate on whether genders have different moral perspectives. Like most professions, philosophy was mainly male dominated until the women’s suffrage movement came about. Women began writing their theories and perspectives on topics. Some believed that women based all their ethical perspectives based on care due to their previous experience as primary caretakers. Women like Held and Card were prominent philosophers of care ethics so it seemed plausible that there could be a debate on whether women based their ethical perspectives on care or not. What makes the debate on whether genders have different moral perspectives, interesting is that the debate is between two females. This is probably ideal because the whole debate really targets women and whether their ethical perspectives have broken out of the mold of their maternal duties after the onset of the revolution.

Friedman shows us that men do not just base their moral perspectives on justice and women do not just base theirs on care; they both coincide. It is almost required that they both exist together. In caring...

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... justice. This is untrue because the two are coincide. If, like Bair claimed, women had distinct ethical perspectives, each person would be replaceable rather than unique. Our individual moral duties and individual moral perspectives are what make us unique. Since each of us is different and irreplaceable, we can conclude this is partly due to our individual moral perspectives. Gender does not frame our ethical perspectives because each person has their moral duties and specific beliefs.

Works Cited

Annette Bair, “Women Have a Distinct Ethical Perspective,” in You Decide! Current Debates in Ethics, ed. Bruce N. Waller et al. (New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006).

Marilyn Friedman, “Gender Does Not Distinguish Different Moral Perspectives,” in You Decide! Current Debates in Ethics, ed. Bruce N. Waller et al. (New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006).