Virginia Held | on Feminist Ethics

Virginia Held | On Feminist Ethics
Held lays out the consequences of centuries of creating ethical theory purely from a male point of view. The most important is that a feminist ethics cannot simply add to a structure built of concepts that are themselves based on a patriarchal view of the masculine and feminine but rather must transform ethics completely. She focuses on three main issues: (i) that of equating reason with males and emotion with females; (ii) associating the public arena with men and the private, household arena with women; and (iii) creating a caricature of the moral self that is exclusive to males.
-According to philosophers David Heyd and J. O. Urmson, a mother's "sacrifices" for her child lie outside the realm of morality because these actions are

A) calculated.
B) self-interested.
C) merely instinctive feelings.
D) rational decisions.