Maternal Ethics

Maternal ethics are an approach to formulating ethical theory by holding the mother-child relationship to be central. The paradigm for understanding ethical conduct is thus a relationship between unequals who are vested in each other's well-being rather than that of two autonomous self-interested males. Maternal ethics advocate replacing the economic man of rational choice theory with a mothering person. The mothering person may be either a man or a woman, the term being ostensibly as gender neutral as economic man.

Feminist philosopher Virginia Held acknowledges without apology that her development of maternal ethics relies on an idealized view of mothering, explaining its use as parallel to the practice of relying on an idealized view of rational contractors. The concept of rational contractors was in itself a major step forward from the patriarchal household, which was once seen as the model for society. Thus, to sufficiently understand and apply the concept of the mothering person, one must look to the postpatriarchal family as a model of the noncontractual society. Held explicitly contrasts her work with that of John Rawls and David Gauthier whose influential theories are premised on the assumption of mutual noninterest between contracting parties. In the postpatriarchal family, women and men both take an active role in mothering and are freed from the traditional stereotypes of gendered roles and expectations.

The unique relationships between mothers and children are characterized as natural, that is, occurring in nature, nonvoluntary, mutually interested, mutually supportive but not always equally so, expressing a willingness to care for each other in times of need and dependence, gradually facilitating independence, irreplaceable, and permanent. In this type of relationship, the parties are vulnerable to each other's demands just as mothering persons are vulnerable to the needs and demands of their children. By this vulnerability they become practitioners and teachers of a morality of caring that would serve well, Held argues, if we could broaden the lessons of home to the marketplace and society at large.

Of course, not all relationships are like motherchild relationships. Indeed, critics argue that the mother-child relationship is completely unique, and few mothers or children long for the same obligations to be replicated in public spheres. Other types of relationships with greater parity may offer more apt paradigmatic characteristics. Held anticipates this criticism, readily admitting that no one relationship is likely to fit all instances. Indeed, maternal ethics need not be seen merely as a substitute for other ethical conceptions, but can also be adopted as a supplement or corrective to other narrow views. Considering the mother-child relationship as paradigmatic is one approach to facilitate thinking about a different, more caring, more mutually invested way of building our society and creating the future. The contrast with current assumptions of how two people will interact, assumptions that underlie contemporary economic theories and policies, is dramatic. The exercise of this contrast is one of the goals of maternal ethics. It encourages people to ask the questions: How would I act differently if I cared about this other person as I care for my daughter? How would I act differently if I felt a need to provide for this person as I do for my mother? The answers to such questions could lead to radical reconsideration of behavioral, economic, and ethical theory.

...