Gender Biasness of Traditional Ethics : A Brief Analysis

Abstract

Traditional ethics has excluded all questions of ‘gender’ from its purview on the presumption that philosophy as a general discipline should have been concerned with human qua human or with the universal human nature as such. It is argued that the scope of philosophy is not desired to be narrowed down by any limited or partial concern, since its concern has always been a universal one. Questions of one’s contingent attributions inclusive of gender would speak of the concrete realities of individual existence, specific to her nature. These would not form a part of the so-called invariably common, abstract and formal essence of humans. Therefore, they should in no way constitute any genuine concern for philosophy. The form of ethics that requires some sort of commitment toward the claims of universal applicability is expected to assume a sex/gender neutral character. But feminists opine that instead of fulfilling its avowed norms the traditional ethics has taken a biased stance in viewing woman’s nature all throughout and hence portrayed its corrupt character. They have identified the traditional ethical theories as basically male-centric because those accounts have failed to theorize woman’s moral experience and agency. Feminists say that the only possible way to eliminate this gender biasness is to bring gender from the periphery to the centre of disciplinary pursuits. Hence, gender mainstreaming of each and every discipline inclusive of ethics is an urgency.