Book Review: Citizenship and the Ethics of Care: Feminist Considerations on Justice, Morality and Politics
| Author | Jo Bridgeman |
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/096466399900800313 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
428
SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 8(3)
Sheldon, Sally and Stephen Wilkinson (1998) ‘Female Genital Mutilation and Cosmetic
Surgery: Regulating Non-Therapeutic Body Modification’, Bioethics 12: 263–85.
Slack, Alison (1988) ‘Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal’, Human Rights
Quarterly 10: 437–86.
Thornton, Margaret (1997) ‘The Judicial Gendering of Citizenship: A Look At Prop-
erty Interests During Marriage’, Journal of Law and Society 24: 486–503.
Walby, Sylvia (1994) ‘Is Citizenship Gendered?’, Sociology 28: 379.
MICHAEL FREEMAN
Faculty of Law, University College London, UK
SELMA SEVENHUIJSEN, Citizenship and the Ethics of Care: Feminist Considerations on
Justice, Morality and Politics. London: Routledge, 1998, 198pp., £14.99 (pbk).
‘Thinking the unthinkable’ will not of itself deliver the social reform that is central to
both the present government’s agenda and, more broadly, the project of European
integration. However, as Selma Sevenhuijsen shows, in Citizenship and the Ethics of
Care: Feminist Considerations on Justice, Morality and Politics, the ways in which we
think, talk and feel about social issues of contemporary concern are instrumental to
the formation of policy in those fields. Think differently, approach the issues from a
new angle and fresh perspectives are permitted to emerge. She proposes the develop-
ment of social policy not through concern with the distribution of obligation but
rather upon caring, addressing ‘how to deal with dependency and responsibility’ (p.
107). To take this focus in asking questions such as: which needs should be fulfilled;
whether collectively or individually; how can the limits to care be identified; when
should care be refused; where should care be provided and by whom (p. 86) will result
in a different set of policy conclusions.
Child custody and health-care funding are fully explored as examples of the policy
implications of thinking from the angle of dependency and responsibility. Govern-...
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