Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care

Summary

In Moral Boundaries Joan C. Tronto provides one of the most original responses to the controversial questions surrounding women and caring. Tronto demonstrates that feminist thinkers have failed to realize the political context which has shaped their debates about care. It is her belief that care cannot be a useful moral and political concept until its traditional and ideological associations as a women's morality are challenged. Moral Boundaries contests the association of care with women as empirically and historically inaccurate, as well as politically unwise. In our society, members of unprivileged groups such as the working classes and people of color also do disproportionate amounts of caring. Tronto presents care as one of the central activities of human life and illustrates the ways in which society degrades the importance of caring in order to maintain the power of those who are privileged.

Winner of the 2023 Benjamin E. Lippincott APSA Award for exceptional work by a living political theorist that is still considered significant after a time span of at least fifteen years since the original publication.