Feminist Ethics Essay

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To Natacha Saintjean

It is true that women are taught to be loving and caring, that these are traits that are socialized into female children. As a result, it may seem that all women are innately more loving and caring. Yet research also seems to suggest that there may be an evolutionary or biological component to the tendency of women to develop nurturing behaviors (Gilligan 1982; Noddings, 2010). The ability to bear children predisposes the female to nurture and preserve life, rather than resort to violence as a means of conflict resolution. The question then becomes why males are socialized to be aggressive, or whether their biology predisposes them.

Likewise, men and women are socialized differently with regards to acceptable or normative behaviors. It is true that women are freer to express different emotional states like crying without stigma, whereas crying can be stigmatized behavior in a man. Given the importance of self-expression and emotional intelligence for overall psychological functioning, it would seem that socialization processes for men need to be changed.

Being submissive is not necessarily a trait that can be traced to biology. While there will always be people who are “alpha,” and have dominant or domineering personalities, being socialized to defer to men is something that is rooted in patriarchal social norms and institutions, not in biology.

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Both men and women have the capacity to be controlling or aggressive, and both men and women also have the potential to be weak and submissive. These are not ethical traits in themselves, but abusing one’s power is an ethical problem.

To Brian Hicks

The Gilligan (1982) research showing that women prefer to see the world through human connections does tie in with the question of whether women were socialized this way or whether biology comes into play. If women prefer to make decisions based on human stories instead of mathematical equations, is that because of socialization? It is highly likely that women who exhibit traditionally female qualities like nurturing end up being rewarded for those attitudes and behaviors, whereas women who show a predilection towards using math, science, or reasoning would be dismissed or even criticized. In this way, there are more women in social services and other helping professions—not because they are hard-wired that way but because they are rewarded for their exhibition of feminine traits. If more men also had these traits,….....

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