Clarifying care : elaborating and expanding the care ethic

The debate over"women's ways of knowing"has been contentious and growing since Carol Gillgian's groundbreaking bookIn aDifferent Voice, which established a contrast between the care ethic(associated with women)and the justice ethic(associated with men). The dissertation explores the care/justice distinction,taking the investigation to a new level by providing a model that explores the perspectives according to a number of criteria organized according to a conceptual-theoretical dimension and also a dimension of praxis. The concepts of universal rights and principles are analyzed in relation to the ethics,leading to the conclusion that care can incorporate them into its ideology without thereby appealing to the justice ethic or hybridizing with it.Two well-known theories of care,Nel Noddings'(1984)and Joan Tronto's(1993)are examined according to the two-dimensional modelI develop. The end result is a fusion of the views into a comprehensive theoretical perspective with applications in both the personal and political spheres. The traditional image,then,of care as a mothering tool limited to the dynamic of family and friends is replaced by an ethical view of care that places"women's ways of knowing"firmly in the arena of business, politics, and other large-scale areas of moral concern.