In a Different Voice?

Abstract

Are women more caring than men, as the ethics of care tradition suggests? Do they think more, feel more, and do more for, others than men? Most people seem to think so, be they researchers or lay people, men or women. However, the evidence from psychology and neuroscience does not support this conclusion. Matching the cognitive and emotional traits most obviously related to caring, we find few, if any, differences between male and female capacities and propensities. In addition, this chapter throws doubt on some of the characterizations of care in the ethics of care tradition. For instance, greater emotional enmeshing with the other does not seem to lead to more prosocial or altruistic behavior.