Chapter 10 Quiz: Feminist Ethics
Instructions: Questions 1–12 are multiple choice. Questions 13–15 are short answer. Questions 16–17 are essay prompts for deeper engagement.
Part A: Multiple Choice
1. Carol Gilligan's primary critique of Kohlberg's model of moral development was that:
(a) Kohlberg's stages were based on flawed research methodology (b) Women are naturally more moral than men (c) Kohlberg's framework was built to recognize justice-oriented reasoning and could not adequately measure care-oriented reasoning (d) Moral development cannot be studied empirically
2. The "care orientation" in Gilligan's framework emphasizes:
(a) Applying universal principles impartially (b) Maximizing total well-being across all persons (c) Responsiveness to particular needs within relationships (d) Adherence to a social contract
3. Nel Noddings' ethics of care identifies all of the following as components of genuine care EXCEPT:
(a) Attentiveness (b) Impartiality (c) Responsiveness (d) Competence
4. Care ethics challenges the mainstream ethical ideal of impartiality by arguing that:
(a) Partiality is always justified in personal relationships (b) Relationships generate special obligations, and always treating others impartially can itself be a moral failure (c) Abstract principles should never guide moral decisions (d) Only those in relationships have moral obligations
5. Joan Tronto uses the term "privileged irresponsibility" to describe:
(a) The tendency of wealthy people to ignore the suffering of others (b) The social arrangement by which dominant groups avoid care obligations while benefiting from care work done by others (c) The moral corruption that comes from excessive wealth (d) The irresponsibility of governments that fail to care for their citizens
6. Standpoint epistemology, as developed by Sandra Harding and Patricia Hill Collins, claims that:
(a) All perspectives are equally valid and there is no objective truth (b) Knowledge is always produced from a particular social position, and marginalized standpoints can offer distinctive epistemic advantages (c) Women's ways of knowing are superior to men's (d) Science should be replaced by narrative and personal testimony
7. Miranda Fricker's concept of "testimonial injustice" refers to:
(a) Lying under oath in court proceedings (b) Dismissing someone's testimony about events they didn't witness (c) Giving someone's word less credibility than it deserves because of a prejudice about who they are (d) The legal injustice of excluding testimony from certain groups
8. "Hermeneutical injustice" occurs when:
(a) A court interprets a law in an unjust way (b) Someone lacks the conceptual resources to understand their own experience, typically because those resources were developed from a different social position (c) Marginalized groups are excluded from legal proceedings (d) Academic knowledge is inaccessible to ordinary people
9. Kimberlé Crenshaw developed the concept of intersectionality primarily to address:
(a) The intersection of economics and politics (b) How race and gender (and other dimensions of identity) interact in ways that can't be understood by analyzing them separately (c) The need for women of different races to form political coalitions (d) Statistical methods for analyzing multiple variables simultaneously
10. bell hooks argues that love, ethically understood, is:
(a) A feeling that motivates moral action (b) A supplement to justice-based ethics for personal relationships (c) A practice requiring care, commitment, trust, respect, knowledge, and responsibility (d) An emotion that should be set aside when making ethical decisions
11. Which of the following is the BEST feminist critique of Kantian ethics?
(a) Kant was personally misogynistic (b) The ideal of the impartial rational agent abstracts away from relationships in ways that miss morally significant features of human life (c) Kantian ethics produces worse outcomes than care ethics (d) The categorical imperative is too complicated to apply
12. Feminist ethics' response to the objection that "care ethics just reinforces traditional gender roles" typically argues:
(a) Traditional gender roles are actually beneficial for society (b) Care is a specifically female capacity and should be celebrated as such (c) The goal is not to celebrate care as feminine but to recognize it as a central human practice that deserves moral recognition and more equitable distribution (d) The ethics of care actually challenges women to take on less care work
Part B: Short Answer
Answer in 3–5 sentences each.
13. Explain the difference between testimonial injustice and hermeneutical injustice. Give an original example of each.
14. How does Tronto extend care ethics from personal relationships into a political philosophy? What is the central political question her analysis raises?
15. Why does intersectionality matter for ethical reasoning? What does it warn against, and what does it suggest we should do instead?
Part C: Essay Prompts
Choose one. Aim for 500–700 words.
16. "The ethics of care and the ethics of justice are not rivals — they are complementary orientations that together give a more complete picture of morality than either provides alone." Evaluate this claim. Use specific examples to illustrate both what care ethics adds and where justice-based reasoning remains essential.
17. Identify an ethical issue in contemporary life where epistemic injustice (testimonial or hermeneutical) is playing a significant role. Describe the injustice, explain how it affects the ethical situation, and propose what would need to change to remedy it. Draw on at least two concepts from this chapter.
Answer Key (Multiple Choice)
- c | 2. c | 3. b | 4. b | 5. b | 6. b | 7. c | 8. b | 9. b | 10. c | 11. b | 12. c