Chapter 10 Exercises: Feminist Ethics
Comprehension Exercises
Exercise 10.1 — Reconstructing Gilligan's Argument
In your own words, explain: (a) what Kohlberg's model of moral development claims, (b) what the problem with it was according to Gilligan, and (c) what Gilligan argued instead. Aim for clarity rather than length — a paragraph per sub-question is enough.
Exercise 10.2 — Justice vs. Care Orientations
Read the following scenario and identify two different responses to it — one primarily justice-oriented and one primarily care-oriented. Then consider: are they in conflict, or do they complement each other?
Scenario: Your close friend asks to borrow money — a significant amount — that you're fairly sure she won't be able to repay. She needs it for something you consider unwise. You can afford it, but it will cause you real hardship.
Exercise 10.3 — Testimonial Injustice Recognition
For each of the following, determine whether testimonial injustice is occurring. If it is, identify the prejudice at work and the nature of the wrong:
(a) A nurse advises a patient that his pain level sounds manageable and does not escalate treatment. The patient is a large Black man. A white patient reporting the same pain level received a different recommendation.
(b) A financial analyst dismisses a junior colleague's market analysis without reviewing it, because the colleague was recently hired out of a non-prestigious school.
(c) A child tells her parents that something at school is wrong, but they assume she's overreacting.
(d) A climate scientist's testimony before Congress is dismissed by a senator who says "I'm not a scientist, but..."
Exercise 10.4 — Hermeneutical Injustice
Identify a concept that, when it became widely available, helped people understand and articulate something they had experienced but couldn't previously name. (Examples from the chapter: "sexual harassment," "gaslighting," "emotional labor.") Write a paragraph explaining: - What the experience was - How the absence of a concept made it harder to understand or address - What changed once the concept was available
Application Exercises
Exercise 10.5 — Care Ethics in Your Own Life
Think of a significant relationship in your life (family, close friendship, partnership). Describe an obligation you have within that relationship that you couldn't capture using justice-based reasoning alone — something where impartiality would be wrong, not right. What does care ethics offer that mainstream ethics misses here?
Exercise 10.6 — Tronto's Political Analysis
Apply Tronto's analysis of "privileged irresponsibility" to one of the following contexts. Who does the care work? Who bears its costs? Who benefits? What would a more just distribution look like?
(a) Unpaid household labor within families (b) The global structure of who provides domestic and care work for wealthy households (c) Healthcare in a hospital: who does the "emotional labor" of caring for patients vs. who is publicly recognized and compensated?
Exercise 10.7 — Intersectionality Analysis
Choose a contemporary social issue (possibilities: access to healthcare, policing, housing, workplace promotion, climate vulnerability). Apply an intersectional analysis:
- Identify at least three intersecting dimensions of identity/social position relevant to this issue.
- Show how the combined effect is different from each dimension alone.
- Identify what this analysis reveals that a non-intersectional analysis would miss.
Exercise 10.8 — Feminist Critique of a Traditional Framework
Choose one of the three frameworks from Chapter 4 (consequentialism, deontology, or virtue ethics). Write a 400–500 word feminist critique of it, addressing: (a) what the framework gets right, (b) what it systematically excludes or undervalues, and (c) how it could be made more complete.
Critical Thinking Exercises
Exercise 10.9 — The Reinforcement Objection
The most common objection to care ethics is that it risks reinforcing traditional gender roles by celebrating the traits historically assigned to women. Write a response to this objection on behalf of care ethics, then write a response on behalf of the objection. Which response do you find more convincing, and why?
Exercise 10.10 — Personal Standpoint Reflection
Standpoint epistemology claims that your social position shapes what you can and cannot easily see. Identify two or three aspects of your own social position (e.g., your class background, race, gender, nationality, ability status) and reflect honestly on: - What might your particular standpoint make easier to perceive about ethics or social life? - What might it make harder to perceive or systematically incline you toward missing?
There are no wrong answers here, but there are shallow ones. Push past the first thing you think of.
Exercise 10.11 — Progressive Project Component
In your ongoing ethics journal (begun in Chapter 4), add a new section: "Care, Relationships, and Whose Voices I Count."
Reflect on: 1. To what extent does care reasoning — attention to relationships, context, and particular needs — play a role in your actual moral thinking, even if you didn't have that name for it? 2. Think of three people whose moral perspective has most shaped your ethical framework. Who are they? What does their inclusion (and others' exclusion) suggest about the limits of your current ethical outlook? 3. Is there a form of moral knowledge you might have been systematically discounting because of who holds it or how it's expressed?
Synthesis Exercise
Exercise 10.12 — The Full Picture
At the end of Part II, you will be asked to construct your own integrated ethical framework — pulling together consequentialist, deontological, virtue-ethical, and care-based insights. As preparation, write a paragraph on the following:
What would be lost ethically if we could only use one of the four frameworks and had to discard the others? What does each one capture that the others don't?