An Ethic of Care

In the 1970s a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education undertook a study of moral decision-making in real-life situations. Her results contested a widely accepted model which saw the goal of moral development as the autonomous self speaking in the voice of justice. Published in 1982, Carol Gilligan's "In A Different Voice" proposed a new model of moral reasoning based on care, arguing that it better described the moral life of women. An immediate center of controversy and one of the most widely discussed books of our time, "In A Different" "Voice" launched the ethic of care as a field of study.
"An Ethic of Care" is the first volume to bring together key contributions to the extensive debate engaging Gilligan's work. It provides the highlights of the often impassioned discussion of the ethic of care, drawing on the literature of the wide range of disciplines that have entered into the debate.
The contributors examine a range of topics from the early claims of brilliance made for Gilligan's break from established developmental theory and the questions raised concerning her methodology, to more recent attempts to address underlying issues that function as uncritical assumptions in her work issues dealing with notions of autonomy and independence in contrast to the connectedness she championed, and the dangers of her focus on the virtues that have traditionally served to keep women in the private sphere.
The volume gives particular attention to the debates in moral philosophy, as a new feminist ethics addresses the reality of women's lives; empirical studies within psychology that examine Gilligan's allegations of sex differences in moral reasoning; and challenges to Gilligan's work that claim it leaves African American and other cultures out of account.
"An Ethic of Care" is intended for all readers interested in major feminist issues.
Contributors: Annette Baier, Diana Baumrind, Lawrence A. Blum, Mary Brabeck, John Broughton, Owen Flanagan, Marilyn Friedman, Carol Gilligan, Catherine G. Greeno, Catherine Jackson, Linda K. Kerber, Mary Jeanne Larrabee, Zella Luria, Eleanor E. Maccoby, Linda Nicholson, Bill Puka, Carol B. Stack, Joan C. Tronto, Lawrence Walker, Gertrud Nunner-Winkler.