The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory, 2018
This chapter builds a picture of a critical, feminist ethics of care as a feminist practical ethi... more This chapter builds a picture of a critical, feminist ethics of care as a feminist practical ethics for international relations. It focuses on care ethics as a moral framework for addressing the challenges of humanitarianism—in a manner that foregrounds human needs while not depoliticizing or taking for granted the category of “human.” A care ethics approach furthers the transformative aims of feminism, while refusing to cast “women-and-children” as vulnerable victims in need of protection. The ethics of care also offers a substantive focus for policy and practice around diverse and competing needs for care. Far from confining women to their roles as carers, this approach exposes patterns of gender inequality in care practices, while retaining a focus on the contribution of the voice and labour of care—in multiple and diverse forms—for all social groups and communities.
Using the debate surrounding the Canadian government’s 2008 Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newbo... more Using the debate surrounding the Canadian government’s 2008 Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health as a central example, this article considers the construction of women and women’s health in global health policy. Specifically, it considers the contributions of Sara Ruddick’s philosophy to the task of unravelling the ethical and political meanings of ‘motherhood’, and the relationship between maternal thinking and feminist politics in global social policy. This article argues that while Ruddick’s Maternal Thinking has often been read as a normative ethics that asserts the moral authority of mothers’ voices and ways of being, it can also be read as a feminist political theory. In particular, Ruddick’s work provides feminists with a critical resource for considering the ways that masculinist power can drive a wedge between ‘mothers’ and ‘feminists’, thereby obscuring the need for feminism to consider all aspects of mothering as central to their political goals. Far f...
The “ethics of care” is an approach to morality that focuses on the moral salience of responsibil... more The “ethics of care” is an approach to morality that focuses on the moral salience of responsibilities to particular, concrete others and the relationships and connections from which they arise. It emphasizes the importance of context in moral judgment and action and starts with a view of moral agents as inherently and necessarily vulnerable and interdependent. It is widely seen as a feminist approach to morality, although theorists now approach care ethics from a variety of perspectives. Care ethics represents a critical alternative to dominant (often seen as “masculinist”) traditions in ethics, including deontological, rights-based, and contractualist ethics. The term ethic of care is usually attributed to Carol Gilligan, who provided one of the earliest articulations of this “different voice” of morality (see Gilligan 1982, cited under Foundational Works). The idea of a global ethic of care is a more recent development in care ethics scholarship that builds on the idea of a polit...
Sara Ruddick’s (1980) first work on “maternal thinking” was published in 1980. It is important to... more Sara Ruddick’s (1980) first work on “maternal thinking” was published in 1980. It is important to realize just how strange her ideas seemed to many people—including many feminists—at that time. Not only did she dare to suggest that the practices of mothering may give rise to a certain kind of moral thinking, she sought to turn that thinking to political use. In suggesting that mothers might contribute in distinctive ways to imagining or creating peace (Ruddick, 1995: xix), Ruddick was dismissed by philosophers, criticized by feminists and ignored by theorists of international politics. But she also set in motion waves of feminist research which would be inspired by her groundbreaking ideas on ethics, mothering, and peace. In honoring Sara Ruddick with a Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award from the Society of Women in Philosophy in 2002, Hilde Lindemann Nelson (2003) so described Ruddick’s contribution to philosophy: “Like a medieval sage in possession of the philosopher’s stone, Sally has taken the dishonored dross of the work of mothering and turned it into intellectual gold” (p. 85). The idea for this special symposium, and the International Studies Association conference panel from which it developed, emerged out of a shared conviction that Ruddick’s work represents “intellectual gold” for the practice and theory of international relations (IR) as well. While at first sight, and to the uncritical eye, a philosophy of “mothering” might seem antithetical to the “high politics” of IR, we argue that this simplistic assumption is mistaken. Contrary to widespread perception, Ruddick’s insights on mothering, violence, and peace are intensely political, and her arguments about the nature of morality and moral judgment represent an important alternative to dominant, rationalist approaches in the discipline. While we are pleased to
Troubling Motherhood: Maternality in Global Politics, 2020
This quotation from E.M. Forster's Howards End is widely understood as a simple but profound stat... more This quotation from E.M. Forster's Howards End is widely understood as a simple but profound statement on the essential link between motherhood and peace. But in the novel, the words appear as businessman Henry Wilcox's fond, if patronizing, memory of his late wife's simplistic and innocent view of politics. The reader learns, however, that Ruth Wilcox was anything but simple-she was a complex, spiritual, loving woman, but also a woman who had lost her selfhood in becoming "Mrs. Wilcox". Ultimately, we see that Ruth Wilcox's views on mothers, war and politics are not naïve or fanciful, but emblematic of the book's central theme-connection. It is human relationship-including, but not limited to, relations between mothers and their children-that Forster sees as the key to maintaining and repairing the fragile fabric of society, and of the world. The fact that this quotation is so well-known and well-used demonstrates how strongly it resonates, even after more than a century. And yet despite the truth it seems to speak to many, for others, it contains contradictions or tensions. Critics insist that "war" and "mothers" occupy different spheres, imagining a bifurcated world in which the "public" world of politics and security is absolutely separate from the "private" world of the domestic life and the (heteropatriarchal) family. Others suggest that it offers an idealistic view of mothers, glossing over the extent to which mothers can be negligent and even violent towards others, including their own children. Feminists worry about the association of mothers with peace, citing the reification of the public/ private binary and its suggestion of biological essentialism. They also express concern over the apparent association of all women with mothering, predicting a lack of recognition, or stigmatization, for women who-for myriad reasons-eschew this role.
This paper presents a case for a feminist care ethics approach to thinking about ethics and justi... more This paper presents a case for a feminist care ethics approach to thinking about ethics and justice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the existing commentary has been focused on arriving at a universally-acceptable principle of resource allocationspecifically for the global allocation of vaccine doses. A feminist care ethics approach, by contrast, begins not with prescriptive principles, but with the everyday practices of people existing in relations of responsibility for and interdependence with others. It thus gives rise to an expanded moral imaginary beyond the 'cosmopolitan-nationalism' binary, encouraging contextualized and multi-scalar inquiry into the enduring hierarchies that perpetuate global injustice.
A global demand exists for labour whose core component consists of 'women's work'. By this I mean... more A global demand exists for labour whose core component consists of 'women's work'. By this I mean sex, childcare and housework. Demand exceeds supply of female citizens of affluent states willing to provide these services in the market. By and large, this has not led to a decline in the demand for commercial sex, a systemic redistribution of unpaid domestic labour between the sexes, or an increased market valorization of 'women's work. Instead, migrant women from poor countries are recruited to top up the deficit at low cost'. 2 'Sex service discourse is not so different from discourses on housework and caring, all trying to define tasks that can be bought and sold as well as assert a special human touch. Paid activities may include the production of feelings of intimacy and reciprocity, whether the individuals involved intend them or not, and despite the fact that overall structures are patriarchal and unjust'. 3 1 I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This paper is part of a larger project on Feminist Ethics and Human Security funded by a SSHRC standard research grant. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my research assistant, Angela Livingstone, who carried out much of the research on the historical development of discourses of trafficking for this paper.
No patt of this tvxik may be teproduced ot utilited in any fotm ot by any means, electtonic ot me... more No patt of this tvxik may be teproduced ot utilited in any fotm ot by any means, electtonic ot mechanical, including photocopymg and tecotdmg, ot by any infotmation stotage and tettieval system, without petmission in wtiting ftom the publishet. The Association of ...
Theories of distributive justice have been popular within moral and political philosophy since th... more Theories of distributive justice have been popular within moral and political philosophy since the publication of Rawls’ A Theory of Justice in 1971 (Rawls 1971). When Charles Beitz followed up eight years later with his application of Rawls’ ideas to the international context, this catalyzed an almost equally great interest in international justice, this time not only by moral and political philosophers, but also in the field of international relations theory (Beitz 1979). Today, twenty-five years later, I would venture the intuitive claim that questions of global justice and inequality have – especially for academics, civil society groups and international institutions – actually overshadow debates on domestic distributive justice. This is not to say that the latter are no longer necessary or important; rather, it is becoming increasingly difficult to confine justice questions to within state boundaries, given the current unprecedented levels of interdependence among states and th...
The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory, 2018
This chapter builds a picture of a critical, feminist ethics of care as a feminist practical ethi... more This chapter builds a picture of a critical, feminist ethics of care as a feminist practical ethics for international relations. It focuses on care ethics as a moral framework for addressing the challenges of humanitarianism—in a manner that foregrounds human needs while not depoliticizing or taking for granted the category of “human.” A care ethics approach furthers the transformative aims of feminism, while refusing to cast “women-and-children” as vulnerable victims in need of protection. The ethics of care also offers a substantive focus for policy and practice around diverse and competing needs for care. Far from confining women to their roles as carers, this approach exposes patterns of gender inequality in care practices, while retaining a focus on the contribution of the voice and labour of care—in multiple and diverse forms—for all social groups and communities.
Using the debate surrounding the Canadian government’s 2008 Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newbo... more Using the debate surrounding the Canadian government’s 2008 Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health as a central example, this article considers the construction of women and women’s health in global health policy. Specifically, it considers the contributions of Sara Ruddick’s philosophy to the task of unravelling the ethical and political meanings of ‘motherhood’, and the relationship between maternal thinking and feminist politics in global social policy. This article argues that while Ruddick’s Maternal Thinking has often been read as a normative ethics that asserts the moral authority of mothers’ voices and ways of being, it can also be read as a feminist political theory. In particular, Ruddick’s work provides feminists with a critical resource for considering the ways that masculinist power can drive a wedge between ‘mothers’ and ‘feminists’, thereby obscuring the need for feminism to consider all aspects of mothering as central to their political goals. Far f...
The “ethics of care” is an approach to morality that focuses on the moral salience of responsibil... more The “ethics of care” is an approach to morality that focuses on the moral salience of responsibilities to particular, concrete others and the relationships and connections from which they arise. It emphasizes the importance of context in moral judgment and action and starts with a view of moral agents as inherently and necessarily vulnerable and interdependent. It is widely seen as a feminist approach to morality, although theorists now approach care ethics from a variety of perspectives. Care ethics represents a critical alternative to dominant (often seen as “masculinist”) traditions in ethics, including deontological, rights-based, and contractualist ethics. The term ethic of care is usually attributed to Carol Gilligan, who provided one of the earliest articulations of this “different voice” of morality (see Gilligan 1982, cited under Foundational Works). The idea of a global ethic of care is a more recent development in care ethics scholarship that builds on the idea of a polit...
Sara Ruddick’s (1980) first work on “maternal thinking” was published in 1980. It is important to... more Sara Ruddick’s (1980) first work on “maternal thinking” was published in 1980. It is important to realize just how strange her ideas seemed to many people—including many feminists—at that time. Not only did she dare to suggest that the practices of mothering may give rise to a certain kind of moral thinking, she sought to turn that thinking to political use. In suggesting that mothers might contribute in distinctive ways to imagining or creating peace (Ruddick, 1995: xix), Ruddick was dismissed by philosophers, criticized by feminists and ignored by theorists of international politics. But she also set in motion waves of feminist research which would be inspired by her groundbreaking ideas on ethics, mothering, and peace. In honoring Sara Ruddick with a Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award from the Society of Women in Philosophy in 2002, Hilde Lindemann Nelson (2003) so described Ruddick’s contribution to philosophy: “Like a medieval sage in possession of the philosopher’s stone, Sally has taken the dishonored dross of the work of mothering and turned it into intellectual gold” (p. 85). The idea for this special symposium, and the International Studies Association conference panel from which it developed, emerged out of a shared conviction that Ruddick’s work represents “intellectual gold” for the practice and theory of international relations (IR) as well. While at first sight, and to the uncritical eye, a philosophy of “mothering” might seem antithetical to the “high politics” of IR, we argue that this simplistic assumption is mistaken. Contrary to widespread perception, Ruddick’s insights on mothering, violence, and peace are intensely political, and her arguments about the nature of morality and moral judgment represent an important alternative to dominant, rationalist approaches in the discipline. While we are pleased to
Troubling Motherhood: Maternality in Global Politics, 2020
This quotation from E.M. Forster's Howards End is widely understood as a simple but profound stat... more This quotation from E.M. Forster's Howards End is widely understood as a simple but profound statement on the essential link between motherhood and peace. But in the novel, the words appear as businessman Henry Wilcox's fond, if patronizing, memory of his late wife's simplistic and innocent view of politics. The reader learns, however, that Ruth Wilcox was anything but simple-she was a complex, spiritual, loving woman, but also a woman who had lost her selfhood in becoming "Mrs. Wilcox". Ultimately, we see that Ruth Wilcox's views on mothers, war and politics are not naïve or fanciful, but emblematic of the book's central theme-connection. It is human relationship-including, but not limited to, relations between mothers and their children-that Forster sees as the key to maintaining and repairing the fragile fabric of society, and of the world. The fact that this quotation is so well-known and well-used demonstrates how strongly it resonates, even after more than a century. And yet despite the truth it seems to speak to many, for others, it contains contradictions or tensions. Critics insist that "war" and "mothers" occupy different spheres, imagining a bifurcated world in which the "public" world of politics and security is absolutely separate from the "private" world of the domestic life and the (heteropatriarchal) family. Others suggest that it offers an idealistic view of mothers, glossing over the extent to which mothers can be negligent and even violent towards others, including their own children. Feminists worry about the association of mothers with peace, citing the reification of the public/ private binary and its suggestion of biological essentialism. They also express concern over the apparent association of all women with mothering, predicting a lack of recognition, or stigmatization, for women who-for myriad reasons-eschew this role.
This paper presents a case for a feminist care ethics approach to thinking about ethics and justi... more This paper presents a case for a feminist care ethics approach to thinking about ethics and justice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the existing commentary has been focused on arriving at a universally-acceptable principle of resource allocationspecifically for the global allocation of vaccine doses. A feminist care ethics approach, by contrast, begins not with prescriptive principles, but with the everyday practices of people existing in relations of responsibility for and interdependence with others. It thus gives rise to an expanded moral imaginary beyond the 'cosmopolitan-nationalism' binary, encouraging contextualized and multi-scalar inquiry into the enduring hierarchies that perpetuate global injustice.
A global demand exists for labour whose core component consists of 'women's work'. By this I mean... more A global demand exists for labour whose core component consists of 'women's work'. By this I mean sex, childcare and housework. Demand exceeds supply of female citizens of affluent states willing to provide these services in the market. By and large, this has not led to a decline in the demand for commercial sex, a systemic redistribution of unpaid domestic labour between the sexes, or an increased market valorization of 'women's work. Instead, migrant women from poor countries are recruited to top up the deficit at low cost'. 2 'Sex service discourse is not so different from discourses on housework and caring, all trying to define tasks that can be bought and sold as well as assert a special human touch. Paid activities may include the production of feelings of intimacy and reciprocity, whether the individuals involved intend them or not, and despite the fact that overall structures are patriarchal and unjust'. 3 1 I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This paper is part of a larger project on Feminist Ethics and Human Security funded by a SSHRC standard research grant. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my research assistant, Angela Livingstone, who carried out much of the research on the historical development of discourses of trafficking for this paper.
No patt of this tvxik may be teproduced ot utilited in any fotm ot by any means, electtonic ot me... more No patt of this tvxik may be teproduced ot utilited in any fotm ot by any means, electtonic ot mechanical, including photocopymg and tecotdmg, ot by any infotmation stotage and tettieval system, without petmission in wtiting ftom the publishet. The Association of ...
Theories of distributive justice have been popular within moral and political philosophy since th... more Theories of distributive justice have been popular within moral and political philosophy since the publication of Rawls’ A Theory of Justice in 1971 (Rawls 1971). When Charles Beitz followed up eight years later with his application of Rawls’ ideas to the international context, this catalyzed an almost equally great interest in international justice, this time not only by moral and political philosophers, but also in the field of international relations theory (Beitz 1979). Today, twenty-five years later, I would venture the intuitive claim that questions of global justice and inequality have – especially for academics, civil society groups and international institutions – actually overshadow debates on domestic distributive justice. This is not to say that the latter are no longer necessary or important; rather, it is becoming increasingly difficult to confine justice questions to within state boundaries, given the current unprecedented levels of interdependence among states and th...
This article explores recent charges of Western-centrism and gender essentialism in care ethics. ... more This article explores recent charges of Western-centrism and gender essentialism in care ethics. In response to these charges, and informed by the work of Carol Gilligan, I argue for a view of care ethics that regards it not primarily as a normative theory advocating for care and care workers, but as a critical ethics that voices and enacts resistance to Cartesian splits and hierarchies. These are not just gender hierarchies; rather, care ethics resists all binaries that divide people into categories and separate them from others, and, indeed, from themselves.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
One of the most vigorous debates within the discipline of international relations (IR) revolves a... more One of the most vigorous debates within the discipline of international relations (IR) revolves around the “universal/particular” dichotomy: the tensions between worldviews that emphasize the “whole” as a unified entity or set of ideas—in the case of IR, the “whole” typically refers to the “whole world”—and those that emphasize constituent “parts”, and the differences among them. Discussions regarding universalism and particularism have involved the traditions of realism, liberalism, and the English School, as well as critical theory, poststructuralism, and postcolonialism. Furthermore, the opposition between universalism and particularism has often taken the form of the analysis of conflict between the sovereign state, on one hand, and universal human rights, on the other. Feminists have been particularly influential in challenging the universal/particular debate in the context of human rights. Their perspectives on human rights are exemplary of feminist scholarship in the field of...
This article explores recent scholarship in the area of care ethics and International Relations. ... more This article explores recent scholarship in the area of care ethics and International Relations. The article begins by tracing the journey of care ethics into the realm of the international or ‘the global’, and then moves on to elaborate on recent scholarship in the area of care ethics in International Relations. Through a discussion of three key areas – violence and conflict, the body, and the ‘pluriverse’ – I argue that feminist care ethics has the potential to offer a way forward in the light of growing critiques of moral rationalism in the international ethics/International Political Theory literature.
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