Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-19T23:16:39.470Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Constructing Maternal Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

Sara Ruddick's Maternal Thinking represents a great contribution to moral philosophy—in particular, by bringing women's “private” virtues into the public sphere. However, there remain problems in the analysis which need to be addressed: How can one possibly generalize about the practice of mothering from one, necessarily limited, perspective, given the facts of cultural diversity? Is Ruddick's normative account of mothering congruent with the reflective judgments of others? Is her account of the transformation of parochial mothering into feminist peace work viable? After exploring these three questions, this reviewer calk, with Ruddkk, for the telling of more maternal stories, from different cultural, racial and economic perspectives.

Type
Review Essay
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartky, Sandra. 1977. Toward a phenomenology of feminist consciousness. In Feminism and phibsophy. Vetterlin‐Braggin, Mary, Elliscon, Fredrick A., and English, Jane, eds. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield Adams.Google Scholar
Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group. 1983. Piecing it together: Feminism and nonviolence. Devon: The Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group, in cooperation with the War Resister's International.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Ann. 1984. On conceiving motherhood and sexuality: A feminist materialist approach. In Mothering. Trebilcot, Joyce, ed. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allanheld.Google Scholar
Frye, Marilyn. 1983. The politics of reality. Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a different voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jean. 1986. Philosophy and feminist thinking. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Hoagland, Sarah Lucia. 1988. Lesbian ethics: Toward new value. Palo Alto, CA: Institute of Lesbian Studies.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, Toni. 1974. Sula. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal thinking. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Wollstonecroft, Mary. [1792] 1967. A vindication of the rights of woman. Hagelman, Charles W. Jr. ed. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar