Care-Focused Feminism

Care-focused feminism focuses on why society labels some values as inherently feminine or masculine. This school of thought also values the caring qualities typically attributed to females and thinks that conflicts would be better handled if men were encouraged to embrace caring and if caring were valued in the public as much as in the private sphere.

Tong discusses Kittay’s idea that humans are fundamentally equal because we all rely on each other when we are the ones needing care. This relates back to the first chapter, in which we discussed treating men and women equally based on their humanness. From Kittay I understood that when a woman needs to be cared for, her husband or another man will do it rather than let her suffer, even though in most cases a woman is the caretaker. This is really important because it shows that men are capable of caring and that it is our society that holds them back from caring except in very limited circumstances.

I think sometimes the idea that maternal tendencies can prevent violence gets carried too far. For example, there is a discussion about Algerian women attacking the French, even when children were in the bombing locations as well. Suggesting that the reason men are on the battlefield is because they do not see their enemy as someone’s children and that women do not fight because they do perceive them this way seems to me to be a broad generalization. It undermines the deep love many men have for their children and forgets the violent roles women play in many conflicts, as suicide bombers and the like, precisely because many people make these same assumptions.