Citizenship and the Ethics of Care: Feminist Considerations on Justice, Morality, and Politics

Care and women's emancipation have often been seen as opposed. What emancipation should mean for the world of care has always received little attention. Recently, however, the whole subject has been brought into the political arena with new reforms of the welfare state, health care policies and family law. Politicians have begun to look for new ways to appreciate care as a meaningful activity and a moral perspective. In this context, Selma Sevenhuijsen argues for a revaluation of care from a feminist perspective. She proposes a new political concept of an ethics of care that will integrate themes from feminist ethics and gender in concrete examples taken from the practice and discourse of care, those found in parental rights issues, health care education, the family and in the public health sector.