-
813Token worriesThe Forum. 2017.There are many grounds to object to tokenism, but that doesn’t mean we should always avoid being the token woman, argues Anca Gheaus.
-
1660Care drain as an issue of global gender justiceEthical Perspectives 20 (1). 2013.The gendered division of labour in combination with the feminisation of international migration contribute to shortages of care, a phenomenon often called ‘care drain’. I argue that this phenomenon is an issue of global gender justice. I look at two methodological challenges and favourably analyse the suggestions that care drain studies should include the effects of fathers’ and other male caregivers’ migration and, in some cases, the effects of migration within national borders. I also explain …Read more
-
134Three Cheers for the Token Woman!Journal of Applied Philosophy 32 (2): 163-176. 2014.Concerns about the under-representation of female academic philosophers and about the stereotype that philosophy is best done by men have recently led to efforts to make academic philosophy a more inclusive discipline. An example is the Gendered Conference Campaign, encouraging event organisers and volume editors to include women amongst invited speakers and authors. Initiatives such as the GCC raise worries about tokenism. Potential invitees may be concerned about unfairness towards whose who w…Read more
-
1Review of Eva Feder Kittay Love's Labor (review)The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics 5 (1): 173-7. 2005.
-
267Equality-Promoting Parental LeaveJournal of Social Philosophy 42 (2): 173-191. 2011.In this paper we provide a critical discussion of how the most progressive parental leave policies are doing with respect to three goods which we identify as essential for liberal egalitarian feminists interested in parental leaves: the good of parental care, the good of gender fairness, and the good of individual choice. Then we offer our own model, based on the power of defaults, which promotes the goods of parental care and gender justice by sacrificing as little as possible of the good of in…Read more
-
125The parental love argument against 'designing' babies: the harm in knowing that one has been selected or enhancedIn Ruth Chadwick, Mairi Levitt & Darren Shickle (eds.), The Right to Know and the Right Not to Know: Genetic Privacy and Responsibility, Cambridge University Press. pp. 151-164. 2014.In this chapter, I argue that children who were selected for particular traits or genetically enhanced might feel, for this reason, less securely, spontaneously and fairly loved by their parents, which would constitute significant harm. ‘Parents’ refers, throughout this chapter, to the people who perform the social function of rearing children, rather than to procreators. I rely on an understanding of adequate parental love which includes several characteristics: parents should not make children…Read more
-
4556GenderIn Serena Olsaretti (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Distributive Justice, Oxford University Press. pp. 389-414. 2018.This chapter discusses gender in relation to the most influential current accounts of distributive justice. There are various disparities in the benefits and burdens of social cooperation between women and men. Which of these, if any, one identifies as indicative of gender injustice will depend on the theory of distributive justice that one endorses. Theoretical decisions concerning the role of personal responsibility, the goods whose distribution is relevant for justice, and the site of justice…Read more
-
1343The Heart of Justice: Care Ethics and Political Theory, by Daniel Engster (review)European Journal of Philosophy 18 (4): 619-623. 2010.
-
54"Review of" Moral Repair. Reconstructing Moral Relations after Wrongdoing" (review)Essays in Philosophy 9 (2): 270-273. 2008.
-
66Is Unconditional Forgiveness Ever Good?In Pamela Sue Anderson (ed.), New Topics in Feminist Philosophy of Religion: Resistance, Religion and Ethical-Political Relations, . 2010.Forgiveness is a compelling Christian ideal. By contrast, to many philosophers it is not clear that forgiveness should be endorsed as a moral requirement; some argue that unconditional forgiveness is morally wrong. Those who are required to exercise forgiveness can feel that their own dignity and moral worthiness is diminished by such requirement if insignificant recognition was given to the harms they suffered as victims. This is particularly significant when thinking about women’s lives. Forg…Read more
-
2744Basic Income, Gender Justice and the Costs of Gender-Symmetrical LifestylesBasic Income Studies 3 (3). 2008.I argue that, in the currently gender-unjust societies a basic income would not advance feminist goals. To assess the impact of a social policy on gender justice I propose the following criterion: a society is gender-just when the costs of engaging in a lifestyle characterized by gender-symmetry (in both the domestic and public spheres) are, for both men and women, smaller or equal to the costs of engaging in a gender-asymmetrical lifestyle. For a significant number of women, a basic income woul…Read more
-
3322The 'intrinsic goods of childhood' and the just societyIn Alexander Bagattini & Colin Macleod (eds.), The Nature of Children's Well-Being: Theory and Practice, Springer. 2014.I distinguish between three different ideas that have been recently discussed under the heading of 'the intrinsic goods of childhood': that childhood is itself intrinsically valuable, that certain goods are valuable only for children, and that children are being owed other goods than adults. I then briefly defend the claim the childhood is intrinsically good. Most of the chapter is dedicated to the analysis, and rejection, of the claim that certain goods are valuable only for children. This has …Read more
-
92Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate by Christine Overall Harvard, MA, MIT Press 2012 xiii + 253 pp., $27.95/£19.95 (hb) (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy 31 (2): 219-221. 2014.
-
1369Children's rights, parental agency and the case for non-coercive responses to care drainIn Diana Tietjens Meyers (ed.), Poverty, Agency, and Human Rights, Oxford University Press Usa. 2014.Worldwide, many impoverished parents migrate, leaving their children behind. As a result children are deprived of continuity in care and, sometimes, suffer from other forms of emotional and developmental harms. I explain why coercive responses to care drain are illegitimate and likely to be inefficient. Poor parents have a moral right to migrate without their children and restricting their migration would violate the human right to freedom of movement and create a new form of gender injustice. …Read more
-
108The Challenge of Care to Idealizing Theories of Distributive JusticeIn Lisa Tessman (ed.), Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Theorizing the Non-Ideal, Springer. pp. 105--119. 2009.The ideal of distributive justice as a means of ensuring fair distribution of social opportunities is a cornerstone of contemporary feminist theory. Feminists from various disciplines have developed arguments to support the redistribution of the work of care through institutional mechanisms. I discuss the limits of such distribution under the conditions of theories that do not idealize human agents as independent beings. People’s reliance on care, understood as a response to needs, is pervasive …Read more
-
30Review of Harry Adams Justice for Children. Autonomy, Development and the State (review)Metaphsychology Online 13 (34). 2009.
-
1213Gender justice and the welfare state in post-communismFeminist Theory 9 (2): 185-206. 2008.Some Romanian feminist scholars argue that welfare policies of post-communist states are deeply unjust to women and preclude them from reaching economic autonomy. The upshot of this argument is that liberal economic policy would advance feminist goals better than the welfare state. How should we read this dissonance between Western and some Eastern feminist scholarship concerning distributive justice? I identify the problem of dependency at the core of a possible debate about feminism and welfar…Read more
-
1737The Right to Parent and Duties Concerning Future GenerationsJournal of Political Philosophy 24 (1): 487-508. 2016.Several philosophers argue that individuals have an interest-protecting right to parent; specifically, the interest is in rearing children whom one can parent adequately. If such a right exists it can provide a solution to scepticism about duties of justice concerning distant future generations and bypass the challenge provided by the non-identity problem. Current children - whose identity is independent from environment-affecting decisions of current adults - will have, in due course, a right t…Read more
-
1348Is there a right to parent?Law, Ethics and Philosophy. 2015.A short paper discussing the question of whether adults' interest in parenting can play a role in justifying the right to rear children.
-
186The Role of Love in Animal EthicsHypatia 27 (3): 583-600. 2012.Philosophers working on animal ethics have focused, with good reason, on the wrongness of cruelty toward animals and of devaluing their lives. I argue that the theoretical resources of animal ethics are far from exhausted. Moreover, reflection on what makes animals ethically significant is relevant for thinking about the roots of morality and therefore about ethical relationships between human beings. I rely on a normative approach to animal ethics grounded in the importance of meeting needs in …Read more
-
1Review of Raymond Geuss History and Illusion in Politics (review)The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics 4 (2): 177-9. 2005.
-
60Love, Hate and Moral InclusionIn Joseph Carlisle, James Carter & Daniel Whistler (eds.), Moral Powers, Fragile Beliefs: Essays in Moral and Religious Philosophy, Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 29. 2011.Drawing upon feminist work on partiality and on the philosophy of Raimond Gaita, I argue that love for particular people can serve as a basis for including strangers in the sphere of ethically relevant individuals. While partiality for some can hinder proper treatment of others, it is also constitutive of our ability to determine the scope of morality. My line of reasoning invites the worry that hatred is as powerful in hindering moral recognition as love is in creating it. I address thi…Read more
-
215Care drain: who should provide for the children left behind?Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 16 (1): 1-23. 2013.Care drain brings the traditional problem of carers' choice between paid work and family at a new level. Taking care drain from Romania as a case study, I analyse the consequences of parents' migration within a normative framework committed to meeting the needs of vulnerable individuals. The temporary migration of parents who cannot take their children with them involves moral harm, particularly the frustration of children's developmental and emotional needs. I use recent feminist work on justic…Read more
-
1217The normative importance of pregnancy challenges surrogacy contractsAnalize. Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies 6 (20): 20-31. 2016.Birth mothers usually have a moral right to parent their newborns in virtue of a mutual attachment formed, during gestation, between the gestational mother and the fetus. The attachment is formed, in part, thanks to the burdens of pregnancy, and it serves the interest of the newborn; the gestational mother, too, has a powerful interest in the protection of this attachment. Given its justification, the right to parent one's gestated baby cannot be transferred at will to other people who would wis…Read more
-
1462Children's Vulnerability and Legitimate Authority Over ChildrenJournal of Applied Philosophy 60-75. 2018.Children's vulnerability gives rise to duties of justice towards children and determines when authority over them is legitimately exercised. I argue for two claims. First, children's general vulnerability to objectionable dependency on their caregivers entails that they have a right not to be subject to monopolies of care, and therefore determines the structure of legitimate authority over them. Second, children's vulnerability to the loss of some special goods of childhood determines the conten…Read more
-
91The Ethics of Parenthood – By Norvin RichardsJournal of Applied Philosophy 28 (4): 416-419. 2011.
-
151How Much of What Matters Can We Redistribute? Love, Justice, and LuckHypatia 24 (4): 68-90. 2009.By meeting needs for individualized love and relatedness, the care we receive deeply shapes our social and economic chances and therefore represents a form of luck. Hence, distributive justice requires a fair distribution of care in society. I look at different ways of ensuring this and argue that full redistribution of care is beyond our reach. I conclude that a strong individual morality informed by an ethics of care is a necessary complement of well-designed institutions.
-
2852The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children (edited book)Routledge. 2018.Childhood looms large in our understanding of human life as it is a phase through which all adults have passed. Childhood is foundational to the development of selfhood, the formation of interests, values and skills and to the lifespan as a whole. Understanding what it is like to be a child, and what differences childhood makes, are essential for any broader understanding of the human condition. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children is an outstanding reference source…Read more
-
1140Parental enhancement and symmetry of power in the parent–child relationshipJournal of Medical Ethics 42 (6): 70-89. 2016.Many instances of parental enhancement are objectionable on egalitarian grounds because they unnecessarily amplify one kind of asymmetry of power between parents and children. Because children have full moral status, we ought to seek egalitarian relationships with them. Such relationships are compatible with asymmetries of power only to the extent to which the asymmetry is necessary for (1) advancing the child's level of advantage up to what justice requires or (2) instilling in the child morall…Read more