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Care Ethics and Markets: A View from Feminist Economics

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Book cover Applying Care Ethics to Business

Part of the book series: Issues in Business Ethics ((IBET,volume 34))

Abstract

Feminist economics, in its contemporary incarnation, began to bloom with the 1993 publication of Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics (Ferber and Nelson). Since then, many strains of feminist thinking have developed around issues of the definition, methodology, philosophy, and policy application of economics. One key insight has been the recognition of the mythical nature of the rational, autonomous “economic man” who was said to inhabit and operate the free market automaton. The crumbling of this image challenges theories of business and markets that see business as no more than rule-bound (i.e., bound to a supposed legal requirement to maximize profits, or to the “dictates of the market”)—and opens the way for serious new thinking about business ethics, responsibility, and care. In this essay, I will review these literatures, describing developments on topics including: how, historically, the images of “economic man” and machine-like market behavior came to gain credence; the role of masculinist intellectual biases in the continuing acceptance of the idea that economies are run by physics-like economic “laws;” alternative views of human nature emphasizing the many dimensions of relationality, including individuality, connection, interdependence, “power over”, “power to”, care, and responsibility; the treatment of paid and unpaid “caring labor,” historically mostly done by women, within economics and feminist economics; alternative images of commerce as being within “the social,” and including all aspects of human functioning, including ethical and caring behavior; and, the role of continued dualistic or non-relational thinking in shaping some aspects of contemporary debates about the ethics of care and the role of business in society. Literatures to be drawn on include the feminist philosophy of science, the history of economic thought, theological views on human relations and care, feminist ethics of care, feminist economics, moral theory, psychological research on moral attitudes and behavior, research on the economics of “caring labor” (e.g. nursing), business ethics, and my own previous works on these issues.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As I write, the Wikipedia entry on “care ethics” is disseminating this view, and it has even infiltrated at least one textbook on business ethics (see citation in Borgerson 2007). Care ethics is sometimes even referred to as “the feminist” approach. In fact, the question of what is—and is not—feminist about care ethics is a topic of lively debate (Borgerson 2007; Tong and Williams 2009).

  2. 2.

    Recent feminist literature has become more complicated as scholars deal with intersexuality, transsexuality, and the like. But the sex/gender distinction provides a rough typology that is useful when examining cultural stereotypes.

  3. 3.

    It is also possible to enter this topic of biased or schematic thinking through linguistics and philosophy, by examining the role of metaphor in shaping how we think (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). See Nelson (1992) and for applications to up-down thinking about gender, Nelson (2006) for an application to the “economy is a machine” metaphor, and Hamington (2009) for an application to the “business is a game” metaphor.

  4. 4.

    In the words of feminist philosopher Karen Warren, “The ability to care (and emotional intelligence generally) is necessary (psychologically, physically, and causally) for moral reasoning … So … One should care because one cannot reason morally, be motivated to act morally, choose to act morally, or value certain practices as moral … unless one cares” (2000, 112, emphasis in original).

  5. 5.

    From a feminist perspective, however, it is shocking to see the lack of credit given to feminist theorists who have pointed out the gender biases in traditional Western liberal philosophy (as in Table 2.1 above), and to Gilligan. While psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s much-cited article on an interpersonal and social approach to moral judgments (Haidt 2001) critiques Kohlberg and others for their overly rationalist, individualist, and disembodied approach, he neglects Gilligan and the Kohlberg-Gilligan controversy entirely, citing male authors as the originators of the social and interpersonal approach. While there may be issues internal to the psychology profession that explain the omission of any mention of Gilligan, this looks distressing like yet another case of a point being noticed only when a man makes it.

  6. 6.

    See (Nelson 2003) for a discussion of the role of images of “separative” and “soluble” firms in contemporary economic thought.

  7. 7.

    Jay W. Lorsch and Elizabeth Maciver, Pawns or Potentates (1989) as cited in D. Gordon Smith (Smith 1998, 291). See also the discussion in Sen (1983).

  8. 8.

    See discussions in Nelson (2006, forthcoming)

  9. 9.

    This is true also about an asset often thought to be cold and impartial: money. For discussion, see Nelson (2006)

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Nelson, J.A. (2011). Care Ethics and Markets: A View from Feminist Economics. In: Hamington, M., Sander-Staudt, M. (eds) Applying Care Ethics to Business. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9307-3_2

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