Book Reviews

Feminist : From Local to Global

by Andrea C. Westlund

Barbara S. Andrew, Jean Keller, & Lisa H. Schwartzman, eds., FEMINIST INTERVENTIONS IN ETHICS AND POLITICS. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 245p. bibl. index. pap., $34.95, ISBN 978-0742542693.

Rebecca Whisnant & Peggy DesAutels, eds., GLOBAL . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. 285p. bibl. index. $75.00, ISBN 978-0742559103.

Virginia Held, THE ETHICS OF CARE: PERSONAL, POLITICAL, AND GLOBAL. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, 2007. 211p. bibl. index. $75.00, ISBN 978-0195325904; pap., $45.00, ISBN 978-0195180992.

Feminist ethics and social theory ly, the global dimensions and potential that the category of cannot be are by now well-established philo- of these concepts for feminist theory taken for granted. In recent years many sophical subfields, characterized by and practice. Feminist Interventions in feminist theorists (some influenced by an impressive variety of approaches Ethics and Politics (henceforth Feminist multicultural and global perspectives, and themes that are united in the Interventions) is primarily theoretical in others by varieties of post-modern and conviction that gender matters. That is, its orientation, while Global Feminist post-structural theory) have questioned gender (however we are to understand Ethics contains more applied ethics. the usefulness of the category, fear- that vexed category) matters to our Virginia Held’s book, as its title sug- ing that any attempt to define women construction of moral problems, our gests, provides a sustained treatment of will be problematically essentialist and understanding of moral agency, our the branch of feminist ethics that has exclusionary. At the same time, many assessment of moral theories and prac- come to be known as the ethics of care, have stressed the reality and urgency of tices, our articulation of central moral tracing out its philosophical lineage as women’s oppression, wondering how concepts, and much more besides. This well as suggesting how it might be ap- feminist theory and practice can be trio of books, the first two of which plied to moral and social problems at coherent and effective without some are recent installments in the Feminist the national and international levels. understanding of what or who women Constructions series edited by Hilde are. Lindemann, Sara Ruddick, and Marga- Feminist Interventions is a good ret Urban Walker, provide an excellent place to start, in part because it has The three chapters grouped in snapshot of the current state of scholar- the earliest publication date, but more Part I of Feminist Interventions are ship in these fields. Anyone wishing to significantly because it begins with among the most careful and con- orient herself within current feminist a set of refreshing new essays on the structive treatments of these issues I ethics and social thought would do concepts of gender and sex themselves. have read in a long time. All seek to well to start with these volumes, which As the editors of this volume note, transcend the current impasse in the have much to offer both newcomers feminist scholars began treating gender debates over gender and its relation to and seasoned participants in the de- as a significant category of analysis sex. Linda Martin Alcoff and Marilyn bates around which they are structured. more than thirty years ago. In doing Frye both argue that it is possible to so they generated important lines of acknowledge some biological under- Though their emphases dif- critique of traditional theories, as well pinnings of gender categories without fer, the three books share overlapping as fresh new approaches to a range of treating members of those categories themes. Among the most prominent moral, political, and social problems. as homogeneous or as biologically de- foci of attention are justice-related con- Indeed, some of those problems were termined to fill particular social roles. cepts such as rights and equality, care- hard even to recognize as problems Interestingly, Frye argues that the es- related concepts such as compassion without the conceptual tools made sentialism debates have been driven by and responsiveness to need, and, final- available by gender analysis. It has a mistaken view about what biological become increasingly clear, however, and social categories are and how they work. While I do not have space to

Page  Feminist Collections (v.30, no.4, Fall 2009) Book Reviews outline the details of her argument, Kantian starting points in the duty of women’s oppression once that oppres- it is both creative and careful and, in beneficence. (It is interesting to juxta- sion is well recognized, the methods my view, succeeds in shedding new pose Miller’s chapter with Held’s book, of radical are more effective light on a persistent problem. Ann described below, which takes the more in identifying women’s oppression in Ferguson’s contribution rounds out the conventional tack of pitting the ethics the first place. Alison Kafer argues that section, arguing that we should not of care squarely against both Kantian- ecofeminists have failed to examine reject the sex–gender distinction “just ism and utilitarianism.) disability oppression and suggests because both ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ ways in which the ecofeminist have been socially and historical- and disability rights movements ly constructed” (p.59). Ferguson might productively interact by defends a “social energy” theory focusing on issues such as green of gender identity and sexual design, environmental health orientation on which one’s sense issues, and health care policy. of self is multiple, layered, and Michele Moody-Adams responds constantly changing. to critics, such as Christina Hoff I have spent some time on Sommers, who claim that femi- the essays in Part I (which are nism has lost sight of the ideal of more directly about metaphysics equality and has become fixated than ethics) because they raise on women’s (alleged) status as and tackle difficult conceptual victims. While Moody-Adams issues that have lurked in the acknowledges that not all such background — and have some- critiques have been fair or ac- times emerged in the foreground curate, she thinks they contain — of the very project of de- a kernel of truth: even multiply veloping a specifically feminist oppressed women are never pure ethics. The remainder of the victims, she argues, and even if chapters in Feminist Interventions women’s preferences are partly (and those in its companion vol- shaped by oppressive conditions, ume, Global Feminist Ethics) are women must nonetheless be a testament to the great variety recognized and treated as agents of approaches that have grown capable of critical reflection and out of this project, and to the social change. sophistication that many of these approaches have achieved. Part III includes new challenges to Part IV turns to global issues in particular forms of feminism, includ- feminist ethics and political theory, Part II of Feminist Interventions ing liberal feminism, ecofeminism, including Bat-Ami Bar On’s reflections focuses on virtues and their costs. Lisa and so-called victim feminism. Liberal on just war theory and Shelly Wilcox’s Tessman examines the psychological feminism has, of course, been chal- illuminating gender analysis of Ameri- burdens associated with virtues — such lenged from multiple directions for can immigration policy. In an essay as intense and unyielding anger — that several decades, but its contemporary that is sure to become widely cited and might be needed for effective resis- defenders (including such prominent widely assigned, Alison Jaggar raises tance to oppression, and challenges feminist philosophers as Martha Nuss- a core question for global feminism: the idea that virtues always benefit or baum, Susan Okin, and others) are far How can feminist philosophers in the lead to the flourishing of their bear- more sophisticated in their arguments global North respond to practices in ers. Laura Cannon offers a critique of and less vulnerable to standard objec- the global South that appear to be op- and response to ’s tions than were some of their prede- pressive to women, without adopting a conception of compassion, and Sarah cessors. But Lisa Schwartzman makes colonializing stance? Jaggar argues that Clark Miller defends the refreshingly a compelling case that, even if lib- non-intervention has not been a genu- unorthodox thesis that an ethics of eral feminism has the tools to address care might be best developed from

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ine option for a very long time, since domestic workers, and Virginia Held The chapters in Part II address the fates of the global North and South considers how an ethics of care might global problems of hunger and poverty are already intertwined in many ways. contribute to the erosion of the distinc- from a feminist perspective. Mari- Northern feminists must not abdicate tion between men’s and women’s work. lyn Fischer draws a parallel between responsibility for the plight of women I found Nelson’s contribution, “Ex- contemporary ethics of care and Jane elsewhere, but Jaggar suggests that we porting Childbirth,” particularly inter- Addams’s pragmatic approach to mobi- may do the most good by attending esting. The experience of childbirth is lizing women against hunger in Europe to and addressing the ways in which often cited as significant by contempo- after World War I. Victoria Davion Northern economic policies and develops a feminist perspective political principles are implicated on issues of trust, choice, and in injustices to women in the the construction of “knowledge” global South. in the global controversy over the safety of genetically modi- The themes of this final fied foods. Peter Higgins, Audra section of Feminist Interventions King, and April Shaw collaborate are picked up and further devel- to develop a new definition of oped in Global Feminist Ethics. poverty, understood as “the de- In fact, coeditor Peggy DesAutels privation of certain human capa- uses Jaggar’s contribution to the bilities” (p.96). earlier book in her introduction to frame the themes of the newer While more limited in volume and to suggest ways in their aims, Higgins, King, and which constructive dialogue be- Shaw share a certain amount of tween feminists across the globe conceptual terrain with Martha might be shaped. As DesAutels Nussbaum, who has developed puts it, “Just as we need to bring a “capabilities” approach to un- feminist perspectives to global derstanding the human good and issues, we need to bring global social justice. In the first chapter perspectives to feminist issues” of Part III, Alyssa R. Bernstein (p.x). Global Feminist Ethics does argues that the conception of a beautiful job of both. It brings human rights presented in Nuss- together a set of gripping, origi- baum’s Frontiers of Justice is more nal essays on issues ranging from compatible with that developed cross-cultural childbirth practices in John Rawls’s Law of Peoples to poverty to bodily and national than many have recognized. sovereignty. As in the more theoretical rary feminist philosophers, but is rela- Other chapters in Part 3 also deal with Feminist Interventions, concerns with tively rarely discussed in detail. Nelson human rights, with a particular focus rights and needs, or justice and care, examines radically different but equally on violations of women’s bodily in- surface in many of the chapters and entrenched childbirth practices in the tegrity. Serena Parekh tries to explain provide a framework for philosophical Netherlands and the United States, ar- why many gender-specific violations debate. guing that both models (“natural” ver- of women fail to be conceptualized as sus “highly medicalized”) reflect high violations of human rights, while Re- Part I of Global Feminist Ethics degrees of social control of pregnant becca Whisnant argues that (contrary centers on forms of activity and work women. He argues that in “export- to some feminist arguments) the con- that either are unique to or have been ing” models of birthing to developing cept of sovereignty — including both assigned to women in both Western countries (and in rethinking our own of bodies and of states — continues to and non-Western cultures. James L. models), we should be open to hybrid- be of liberatory importance. Whisnant Nelson examines models of childbirth, ized practices that respect women’s le- warns that her contribution contains Sabrina Hom discusses social network- gitimate interests without forcing them graphic descriptions of pornographic ing and organizing practices among into prepackaged, mutually exclusive images, and I confess that I found it sets of options.

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to be the single most difficult piece to Global Feminist Ethics as a whole, ics. Held argues that the ethics of care, read in all three of these books. Even along with its companion Feminist while still very new compared to its though I have not looked at them my- Interventions, does an admirable job of major philosophical alternatives (Kan- self, the images she describes are now advancing such dialogue. Not all of the tianism, utilitarianism, and Aristotelian irreversibly lodged in my imagination, collected authors would agree on how virtue ethics), nonetheless offers a vi- darkening my sense of the social/sexual to frame or resolve issues of central able alternative to all of them. That is, reality faced by our daughters (and feminist import, but the juxtaposition the ethics of care should be understood sons). Unpleasant as this is, I think of their voices in these volumes is pro- to be a full, alternative moral frame- Whisnant does an important service in ductive and stimulating. Both volumes work — not just a supplement — that confronting us with the harsh realities are suitable sources of assigned readings corrects certain defects shared by its of the Internet porn industry. Pornog- in middle- to upper-level courses (in- competitors. raphy has obviously been a controver- cluding graduate courses) in feminist Central among these defects, as sial issue for feminists. But one cannot ethics and social thought. Held sees it, is a tendency to regard responsibly take a stand on the issue individual persons, or motives of in- without knowing what’s out dividual persons, as the primary there, and we need to be aware unit of ethical analysis. Ethics of how prevalent and easily of care is unique, in her view, accessible the more violent, de- in treating caring relationships grading, and humiliating images between people as central. Held really are. argues that care is both a practice and a value, or, perhaps more ac- The final section of the curately, a practice with certain book, Part IV, focuses on re- constitutive values centered on sponses to political and religious responsiveness to need. Care is conflict, including the emo- not just a motive or an emotion, tions, practices, and virtues (or in her view, but also (if I under- vices) that play a role in those stand her correctly) a kind of responses. endorses standard that we can use to evalu- a shift from the “right to inter- ate relationships. vene” to the “responsibility to protect” in peacekeeping dis- I am not always sure that course, and draws on the ethics I do understand the details of of care to elaborate the latter. Held’s view, since in this book In a response to Hegel’s view of she tends to err in the direction the relationship between terror of breadth over depth. Held is and identity, Bat-Ami Bar On incredibly widely read, and she suggests that embodied courage, feels at home in many different rather than terror itself, may corners of a complicated body of be a significant avenue to free- literature. It is hard to think of an dom. Finally, Lynne S. Arnault ethicist or political theorist with analyzes moralized disgust, explain- The third book under discussion any relevance to her project that she ing both its power and its limitations here is unlike the others in that it is a has not discussed. I find, however, that in political discourse. Expressions of single-author treatment of one moral she leaves a bit too much to the reader’s disgust are powerful (and dangerously theory, along with its application to imagination: we are repeatedly told, so), she contends, because of their con- global social and political problems. for example, that newer versions of versation-stopping invocation of moral In The Ethics of Care, Virginia Held ethics of care are not vulnerable to the certitude. In resisting oppression, dia- extends the framework she began to objections raised against older versions, logue between different perspectives is develop in her previous book, Feminist but she tends to defend this important precisely what needs to be kept open, Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, claim in broad strokes rather than not shut down. and Politics, and responds to her crit- through painstaking argument. For

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example, she claims that most ethicists Of course, breadth over depth It is difficult to sum up a review of care now believe that justice and can be a virtue in some contexts: indi- of three different books that contain so care are both important values, and that vidual chapters of this book could be many different arguments on so many the challenge is to figure out how they very useful in introducing students (or different topics. Reading them back to are related within a comprehensive other curious readers) to the central back, I am left feeling impressed and moral theory. One of her most central features of the ethics of care (Chapter invigorated by the fruitfulness, diver- and intriguing theses is that care is 1) and the many different versions of sity, and dynamism of contemporary the more fundamental value, and that the view that have been developed in feminist ethics. I have gained new it provides the wider context within recent years (Chapter 2). Other chap- ideas and energy for my own research which we can carve out space for the ters (3–6) give a good sense of the rela- and teaching, and I feel confident that concepts and practices of justice. I, for tion of the ethics of care to competing many others will, too. Perhaps that in one, would love to see a more detailed ethical theories, while still others raise itself is the best recommendation I can development of this thesis, but we only important issues about the scope of give. get its broadest outlines here. the view (Chapters 7–10). I would not recommend assigning the whole book [Andrea C. Westlund is an assistant pro- Likewise, in the last section of in any given class, since there is a cer- fessor of philosophy and women’s studies the book, Held suggests that the ethics tain amount of repetition between the at the University of Wisconsin–Milwau- of care contains lessons of global and chapters. (The vast majority of them kee. She has research and teaching inter- public, not just local and private, im- are revised versions of self-standing ests in ethics and , and portance. She identifies several pressing papers previously published elsewhere.) her work focuses primarily on autonomy problems of global import (the reach of But individual chapters could be fruit- and shared agency in relationships of markets, the role and nature of rights, fully combined with other, related ma- friendship and love. Her papers have the reach of the law) and indicates terials in classes on ethics or feminist been published in , The Monist, how she thinks the ethics of care could theory. While it is not obvious that Philosophers’ Imprint, The Philosophi- transform our thinking about these all the criticisms Held makes of tra- cal Review, and Signs.] issues. But she tends to give us a snap- ditional moral theories hit their mark shot of end products (telling us what (for an alternative view, see Miller’s kinds of policies a care-ethicist would provocative discussion of Kant and care endorse) rather than explaining exactly in Feminist Interventions), it is indisput- how care-ethics generates those results. able that human dependencies and car- Again, I take this to be an example of ing relationships have remained at the favoring breadth over depth. periphery of most moral theories. Held is surely right that there is something important to learn from these relations, and she does us a great service in put- ting them front and center where they demand our full attention.

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