Joan Tronto

Tronto asks us to consider how the boundaries between ethics and politics, between public and private, and the boundary requirement that moral judgment be made from a disinterested pointed have worked to marginalize women, and exclude them from power.

According to JT this is not a problem solved by theory alone--moral arguments must be evaluated within a political context. This will require the reshifting of moral boundaries insofar as it requires both a blurring of ethics and politics and well as a blurring of the strong distinction between the public and the private. JT proposes that a political Ethic of Care can do this.

She outlines caring practices along four lines (she prefers to think of care as practice rather than as a disposition): Caring About (recognition that care is needed), Taking Care (assuming responsibility for identified need), Care-Giving (the direct meeting of needs) and Care-Receiving (verification that the need has been met). From these four kinds of caring relationship she generates/locates four ethical elements of care: attentiveness to the needs of others, a notion of responsibility as distinct from a notion of obligation, competence to enact the care, and a responsiveness to the vulnerability of others. Because she thinks caring is an activity that can be directed to institutions and not merely individuals, she is in a position to argue that institutions may also better reflect the Ethic of Care.

One of her most interesting claims is that as caring currently functions in the world, the ones "caring about" and the ones "taking care" typically are those who hold positions of power, while the actual care-giving and care receiving are disproportionately practiced by marginalized persons, such as women and minorities. A revaluation of socio-political values can help us to see how to more equitably distribute care work in modern society.… (más)