Care Ethics as a Challenge to the Structural Oppression Surrounding Care

ABSTRACT

In her recent work, Joan Tronto, (2018, 22), explains that one of the reasons why care is an issue of power and inequality is because, among other things, it has not been revealed as ‘already shaped’ in existing social norms and institutions. In particular, she emphasises the fact that the injustice of such social norms and institutions has been tolerated or largely overlooked from the perspective of the privileged. This paper aims to reveal the power and inequality of care that is ‘already shaped’ in existing norms and institutions, as Tronto puts it. For this purpose, Iris Young’s concept of oppression is employed to show that ‘care status’ is one of the important axes of oppression in society, and to clarify the various aspects of structural oppression associated with care. Ultimately, this paper aims to strengthen the possibility of care ethics becoming a normative political theory that challenges and criticises the structural injustice in society.

KEYWORDS:

• Care ethics
• oppression
• care status
• structural injustice
• Iris Young

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference 2018 at the Portland State University, Oregon, US, September 27-28, 2018. I am particularly grateful to two reviewers of this journal for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Myo Jung Kang and Soyoon Lee for assisting with this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Virginia Held (2010) points out that care ethics can provide a meaningful insight into preventing and reducing domestic violence.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2018S1A3A2075609).

Notes on contributors

Hee-Kang Kim

Hee-Kang Kim is a Professor in the Department of Public Administration at Korea University. Her research and teaching interests are in care ethics, justice theory, feminist theory, and normative policy analysis. Her articles appeared in various journals including Public Affairs Quarterly, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Critical Social Policy, International Journal of Care and Caring, and Women’s Studies International Forum.