Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society and Politics

How is feminism changing the way women and men think, feel and act? Virginia Held explores how feminist theory is changing contemporary views of moral choice. She proposes a comprehensive philosophy of feminist ethics, arguing for reconceptualizations of the self; of relations between the self and others; and of images of birth and death, nurturing and violence. Held shows how social, political and cultural institutions have traditionally been founded upon masculine ideals of morality. She then identifies a distinct feminist morality that moves beyond culturally embedded notions about motherhood and female emotionality, and she discusses its far-reaching implications for altering many contemporary social problems, including standards of freedom, democracy, equality, and personal development.