Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical
Theories in Social Work
Mel Gray
Mel Gray is Professor of Social Work at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales,
Australia and Research Professor in The Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and
Wellbeing. Her recent works include Indigenous Social Work around the World: Towards
culturally relevant education and practice jointly edited with John Coates and Michael Yellow
Bird (Ashgate 2008), Social Work Theories and Methods, co-edited with Stephen A. Webb
(Sage 2008), Evidence-based Social Work: A critical stance with Debbie Plath and Stephen A.
Webb (Routledge, 2009), Ethics and Value Perspectives in Social Work, co-edited with
Stephen A. Webb (Palgrave 2010), and Sage International Social Work (four volumes) coedited with Stephen A. Webb (Sage 2010).
Correspondence to Mel Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work, The Australian Institute for
Social Inclusion and Wellbeing (TAISIW), The University of Newcastle, University Drive,
Callaghan 2308, New South Wales, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
This paper examines the feminist ethics of care as an emergent ethical theory that casts
ethical dispositions in a different way to the deontological focus on duties and rules and
consequentialist–utilitarian focus on minimising harm. It is closer to, though different
from, virtue ethics with its focus on moral character. The paper highlights the philosophical tensions within and between these disparate theories, suggesting nevertheless
that discussions about ethics are enriched by these diverse influences. Since it is not possible within the scope of this paper to deal with all of these ethical theories in depth, following a brief overview of the more established theory of deontology, virtue ethics and
the ethics of care are discussed. While the feminist ethics of care attempts to provide a
more complete view of morality and ethics in social work, there are important philosophical problems with which social work needs to engage in order to discern whether it
offers a better understanding of morality than existing approaches in social work ethics
and whether it can address the complexities of the problems social workers deal with
and the harsh practice environments in which they work where the ‘practice of value’
is becoming ever more difficult and strong reasons to care must be found.
Keywords: Social work ethics, feminist ethical theory, virtue ethics, ethics of care,
dialogical ethics
# The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of
The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.
British Journal of Social Work (2010) 40, 1794–1811
doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp104
Advance Access publication September 22, 2009
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Introduction
There has been an ongoing plea for social workers to have some grounding in
moral philosophy, even though social work education has tended to steer
away from this course. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an emphasis on
the importance of moral philosophy for social work education and practice
(Ragg, 1977; Timms and Watson, 1978; Wilkes, 1981; Siporin, 1982, 1983,
1992; Timms, 1983; Clark with Asquith, 1985; Rhodes, 1986; Goldstein,
1987). Goldstein (1987) referred to ‘the careful and sensitive regard for the
moral and spiritual convictions of the client’ (Goldstein, 1987, p. 182) as
the ‘neglected moral link’ in social work practice and went so far so as to
say that all social work encounters have a moral component in that they
concern and affect the welfare of others. He and Siporin (1982, 1983, 1992)
ranged widely in their writing on ethics and its relationship to moral, political
and religious philosophy, as did the work of Reamer (1995, 1998a, 1998b,
1999), though he focused on ethical decision making, having developed his
ethics audit in social work (Reamer, 2001). More recently, Houston (2003)
observed that ‘For far too long moral philosophy has not received the attention it rightly deserves by the social work academe and when learned submissions are made, they inevitably focus on the long standing, internecine
war between the Utilitarians and Deontologists’ (Houston, 2003, p. 819).
However, the principles-based approach of deontology has worked alongside teleological—consequentialist and utilitarian—approaches as social
workers have sought to maximise the good and minimise harm while doing
their duty and following their values, principles and codes.
Deontology’s continuing value
Kantian deontological ethics is a principle-based ethics wherein reason is
central. Reasons motivate or predispose action. Kant’s ethical theory is
grounded in the respect owed to individuals because they are rational
moral agents. Reasons are seen as more reliable when making moral judgements than emotions. This is not to say that Kant overlooks the importance
of emotions, merely that they do not give the moral agent reason for action.
Moral motives are attached to moral principles that lead people to do the
right thing. As Herman (1993) points out in her excellent book on
Kantian ethics, Kantian motives are not non-moral incentives, such as
desires, causes, practical interests or consequences, but reasons. While
such incentives might be present, they are not the reasons or motives for
acting. In other words, when a social worker respects the client, she does
this because it is the right thing to do in terms of her professional values
and code of ethics. Likewise, with the rule or principle of confidentiality,
the social worker’s duty to the client provides the motive to act as this
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1795
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
rule requires. The object of the action is to keep the client’s confidence: her
motive—reason—to maintain confidentiality accords with the rule that
requires her to do so. Hence, this form of ethics is primarily concerned
with finding objective moral rules and principles that apply to all people
everywhere. Kant’s principle of respect for persons, as an end in itself, is
tied to his view of individuals as rational beings with autonomy and the
capacity to exercise choice (Gray and Stofberg, 2000). It is this condition
of human agency that sets the object of moral requirement in place and
places limitations on our actions. It is precisely this view of the individual
that social work adopts. It leads to attention being paid to responsibility
as the flipside of duty or obligation and to ethical decision making as a
rational activity. Much attention is then focused on devising codes of
ethics and ethical decision-making frameworks to guide ethical practice
(e.g. Congress, 1999; Mattison, 2000; Robinson and Reeser, 2000; McAuliffe and Chenoweth, 2008; Dolgoff et al., 20091). Importantly, however,
what lies behind this is what Goldstein (1987) was at pains to emphasise
and that is social workers’ commitment to and seriousness about morality.
Once they understand the moral motivation behind what they do, they will
appreciate the importance of following the rules and ethical codes of their
profession and exercise their freedom or autonomy to do so.
Deontological approaches create a logic whereby professionals are dutybound to follow their ethical code and where ethical practice without
guiding principles is inconceivable. This allows for rational deliberation that
comes into play when our routine moral judgements fail us, such as in cases
of conflict or uncertainty. While there is no denying the importance of principles when difficult ethical decisions have to be made, the possibility exists
that other factors are equally important. Hence, a new literature is emerging
that offers more diverse approaches and appeals for social workers to have a
deep understanding of morality and the ethical implications of their work (e.g.
Clark, 2000, 2006; Houston, 2003; Meagher and Parton, 2004; Hugman, 2005;
Banks, 2006, 2008; Bowles et al., 2006; Gray and Lovat, 2006, 2007; Lovat and
Gray, 2008; Gray and Webb, 2008, 2009). In the harsh, risk-aversive, managerial environments of contemporary practice, it becomes increasingly difficult
to maintain an ethical perspective. There is an ‘anti-ethical’ tendency in the
translation of principles into codes used to regulate practitioner behaviour,
since they force practitioners into a narrowly prescriptive approach with
little space for professional autonomy (Meagher and Parton, 2004; Orme
and Rennie, 2006). In such an environment, the ‘practice of value’, as Webb
(2006) calls it, is much more difficult than social workers realise. This,
however, should not undermine the importance of principles and codes. It is
important in the teaching of ethics to emphasise their usefulness despite the
difficulties involved and challenges from several quarters: from researchers
with evidence that social workers do not use ethical codes in practice (McAuliffe, 1999; Rossiter et al., 2000; Banks, 2008), postmodernists who point to
ethical ambiguity and uncertainty (Dean and Rhodes, 1998; Parton, 2003;
1796 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Rossiter, 2006) and feminists who question the gender neutrality of maledominated ethics (see below). For feminists and postmodernists, the universal
or transcendent principles of a reason-based morality are deeply problematic.
Not only do they not take the differences between men and women into
account, but they also disregard the importance of emotions, care, responsibility, relationships and so on. Feminists wanting to avoid the difference route
found the answer in virtue ethics, while those drawn to Gilligan’s (1982)
work gravitated towards an ethics of care approach, as we shall see below.
Feminist-influenced ethical theories
Virtue ethics
For feminists:
Virtue theory insists that it is misguided to expect reason to be able to establish some infallible moral doctrine which is compulsory and often counter to
human nature and emotions. Perhaps morality is not about conforming to
rules, but more about being trained to see problematic situations in a
moral way. Morality may not be the rational control of the emotions but,
more appropriately, the cultivation of desirable emotions (Phoca and
Wright, 1999, p. 123).
Phoca and Wright (1999) capture here the feminist critique of reason and
rationality as the cornerstone of ethical behaviour. Feminists regard this
approach as reductive in its presumptions about the overriding importance
of duties and obligations, and rules and principles in moral behaviour. This
implies that social workers keep clients’ confidence, for example, merely
because it is their duty to do so. For feminists, there is much more to morality than this. We keep confidentiality because we care about our clients.
There is something intrinsic to our relationships with clients centred on
mutuality and trust. We behave in a trustworthy manner because we care.
There is a give and take in the relationship that has nothing to do with consciously and rationally applying rules and principles. Le´vinas (1998) and
Bauman (1993) refer to it as the call of the other—a responsibility we
feel not out of duty or obligation, but out of compassion and caring
deeply. For some feminists, this ‘something intrinsic’ arises from a moral
disposition, an innate tendency, something inherently human, that gets
reinforced in the give and take of our relationships with others. Relationships are thus central to feminist thinking about ethics. As an aside,
Herman (1993) argues that contrary to feminist ethicists’ claims, Kantian
moral theory can accommodate relationships. It is precisely the deliberative
intersubjective aspects of Kant’s moral theory that Habermas develops in
his discourse ethics. If one were to see the ethics of care in Kantian
terms, one would acknowledge that the fulfilment of human needs, including the need for care, is necessary to sustain oneself as a rational being and
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1797
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
that the rule in operation is one of beneficence. In terms of Kant’s theory,
everyone’s needs count because their fulfilment is an end that cannot be
ignored.
Unlike Kant’s reasons as motives, for virtue ethicists, our innate tendencies propel us to follow the virtues and thus find the ‘moral way’, as
Phoca and Wright (1999) put it above. Murdoch (1970) emphasises the
intrinsic nature of morality: it is good to be good merely because it is
good to be good. We need no other reason than this—no universal principles or determining consequences. What we see evolving here is the
casting of ethical dispositions and actions in a very different way to the
deontological focus on duties, obligations and rules. Intrinsic virtues or
traits of character and particular moral attitudes and dispositions can,
according to feminist virtue ethicists, never ensue from simple rulefollowing or the mechanical application of principles. They can, however,
develop through training, experience and practice, that is through processes
which teach that following the virtues produces good outcomes. However, it
is not good outcomes that make actors moral, but their motivations and dispositions. Hence, morality under virtue ethics has a motivational force that
propels people to take action but, as McBeath and Webb (2002) put it, the
individuals’ moral character is the ‘stable reference point, not the action’
(McBeath and Webb, 2002, p. 1026; see also Clark, 2006). They describe
virtues as ‘generalizable capacities of self’ (McBeath and Webb, 2002,
p. 1026). It is easy to see how this resonates for social workers who
have long seen ‘use of self’ as pivotal to helping relationships (England, 1986).
While within social work, some writers have linked virtue ethics to the
ethics of care, they are, in fact, different. As Held (2006) notes, while
care might bear some resemblance to virtue ethics, it is not reducible to dispositions within a particular individual, since, by its very nature, care is
oriented towards relationships that extend beyond individuals. Furthermore, feminist virtue ethicists sought to distance themselves from ‘difference’ feminism, which gave rise to the ethics of care, by seeing the virtues
as distinctly human capacities. Both men and women are capable of
caring and nurturing. Nevertheless, many care ethicists view moral sensitivity towards, feelings of compassion for and the desire to care for others
as the result of moral character, believing that it is one’s virtuous attitude
that causes one to be sensitive to others’ needs, and not logic and rational
argument alone (Gray and Lovat, 2007). In this vein, Tronto (1993) sees
‘an ethic of care’ as:
. . . a set of moral sensibilities, issues and practices that arise from taking
seriously the fact that care is a central aspect of human existence . . . a
species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue
and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible. That
world includes our bodies, our selves and our environment, all of which
we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web (Tronto, 1993,
p. 103).
1798 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
The important difference in this form of thinking about ethics is that
virtue ethics, following Aristotle’s (1954) philosophy, provides a naturalistic account of morality as something that inheres in our human
nature rather than in abstract principles. However, one of the sticking
points for those who are sceptical about virtue ethics is how virtues are
defined. Aristotle believed that virtues could be discerned by looking
at the character traits of the virtuous person or from observing what is
needed for human flourishing. For Aristotle, there was a direct connection between following virtues and human well-being. By attributing morality to human nature, rather than to differences between men and
women, virtue ethics enables feminists to focus on fundamental human
interests and needs. This fits well with social work’s view of itself as a
profession, which helps people achieve their full potential by actualising
their innate capacities.
However, Aristotle’s naturalistic philosophy went beyond the individual
to discerning the kind of society needed for human flourishing. This, too,
fits well with social work’s approach to human rights and social justice.
These concerns are very different from those of non-natural ethics, like
Kant’s deontology, which ‘depict ethics as something transcendentally
pure and uncontaminated by the world of human desires’ (Phoca and
Wright, 1999, p. 124). However, when ethics are removed from this ‘objective’ level, they become closer to psychology or sociology or even biology,
which can be problematic for feminists. For example, by grounding ethics in
‘feminine’ characteristics, as Noddings (2003) and others have done, feminists depict relationships, empathy, care and so on as ‘women’s special
virtues’. As Phoca and Wright (1999) note, there is a danger in seeing
women as ‘innately supportive, non-competitive nurturers’ (Phoca and
Wright, 1999, p. 125) as this can all too easily lead to them being disregarded
and feminist ethics once again being marginalised. Feminist virtue ethicists
thus advocate a broader focus on character, disposition and the myriad
factors needed for human flourishing.
Several writers have written about virtue ethics in relation to social work
(Rhodes, 1986; Morelock, 1997; McBeath and Webb, 2002; Hugman, 2005;
van den Bersselaar, 2005; Clark, 2006; Lovat and Gray, 2008). Some believe
that virtue ethics can be enriched through an understanding of virtue as
developed through communication and dialogue. Seeing ethics and morality as culturally contingent, Rhodes (1986) was one of the first social work
writers on virtue ethics to suggest the need for a dialogical process to reach
shared understanding. More recently, writers have highlighted the relevance of Habermas’s communicative action and discourse ethics to
social work (Houston, 2003; Hugman, 2005; Gray and Lovat, 2007; Hayes
and Houston, 2007; Lovat and Gray, 2008). They see in Habermas the
means with which to achieve a balanced perspective on ethics that
accords with Rhodes’ (1986) early emphasis on dialogue and shared understanding. While Habermas offers a fairly structured rational approach
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1799
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
complete with principles and rules of discourse, as does feminist writer
Koehn (1998), his appeal lies in his attempt to devise an inclusive form of
ethics—reliant on procedural processes within democratic institutional
structures—wherein all people everywhere can participate. However, feminists are critical of Habermas’s heavy reliance on rational principles, procedural processes and unquestioning faith in democracy (Meehan, 1995).
They advance a completely different theory and it is to this feminist
ethics of care that we now turn.
Ethics of care
Feminist ethics of care
There are two main strands to the feminist ethics of care as it has been introduced to social work. One emanates from psychology, starting with the
work of developmental psychologist Carol Gilligan, and the other from
the influence of political scientists Joan Tronto and Selma Sevenhuijsen.
Gilligan’s (1982) groundbreaking work on gender differences in moral
development has been influential in the development of the feminist
ethics of care. Gilligan discerned that while men tended to be more rational,
women tended to be more emotionally connected and nurturing. Her care
perspective involved seeing ourselves as connected to others within a web
of relationships such that our sense of self becomes closely tied to others’
responsiveness to us and our responsiveness to others. Maintaining these
relations of care is a key focus of the ethics of care, which, says Davion
(1993), is epitomised in Noddings’ (1984) injunction to always meet the
other as one caring (see below).
Gilligan’s research emerged at the time of what Faludi (1992) has called a
‘backlash’ against feminism in which one of its key progenitors, Betty
Friedan, author of the seminal The Feminist Mystique (1963), played a
pivotal role. In her eagerly awaited The Second Stage (1981), Friedan
appeared to renege on her earlier commitments and ‘walked right into
the New Right’s “pro-family” semantics trap . . . [R]eferring to the
women’s movement . . . as “the feminist reaction” . . . [she elevates] the
“relational” Beta mode and other distinctively “feminine” traits’ (Faludi,
1992, p. 358). Faludi (1992) notes how terms like ‘women’s ways’,
‘women’s special nature’ and ‘feminine caring’ entered into popular
works in the 1980s, as did attacks on ‘equal opportunity feminists’ criticised
for encouraging women to ‘devalue caring work’ (Faludi, 1992, p. 359).
However, Faludi claims that most feminist scholars had ‘set out to investigate the origins of men’s and women’s differences, not to glorify them’
(Faludi, 1992, p. 359). In so doing, ‘they hoped to find in women’s “difference” a more humane model for public life’ (Faludi, 1992, p. 359). But
‘difference’ began to ‘defuse the feminist campaign for equality’ (Faludi,
1800 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
1992, p. 360) and Gilligan’s In a Different Voice (1982) became emblematic
of this new feminist scholarship. Notwithstanding the limitations of the
research on which her work was based, Gilligan’s discriminatory arguments
gave anti-feminists ammunition that ‘could cause real harm to women’
(Faludi, 1992, p. 365). Though Gilligan objected to the use of her work to
such ends, the damage had been done as women turned to the ‘revolution
from within’ (Steinem, 1992), eagerly consuming books on building
self-esteem, self-help and New Age spirituality thus seriously diminishing
the personal is political ethos of second-wave feminism (Evans, 1995;
Whelehan, 1995).
As already noted, Noddings’ (2003) work fits this ‘feminine’ rather than
‘feminist’ mould, with care rooted in the roles women assume in society.
For Noddings, rather than a form of virtue, the ethics of care concerns the
mutuality of the caring relationship, which embodies a unique way of being
responsive to the particular details of the caring situation by one’s actions
within it. It rests on an emotional–volitional account of ethics that
depends on a spontaneously occurring, sensuous attunement to the events
occurring in our surroundings, an interested-affective attitude (as opposed
to the detached-objective mode of deontology). For her, the duty of care
is not the same as the ethic of care. Care involves being engrossed in a
caring relationship, with the one being cared for such that he or she feels
cared for, otherwise one is merely acting out of duty or obligation. Noddings’
claim that such engrossment involves suspending evaluation and being
transformed by the other creates significant moral risks for Davion (1993),
especially if one becomes locked into supporting immoral goals. For her,
we make a moral choice that warrants careful evaluation when we decide
to enter into, and remain in, a relationship. There are thus more basic
values than care that enable people to maintain integrity in their relationships and to do good: ‘ . . . one must be able to maintain deeply held convictions in order for a caring relationship to be morally good’ (Davion, 1993,
p. 163). Importantly for Davion (1993), ‘the process of evaluating ongoing
relationships can be seen as an exercise of moral autonomy’ (Davion,
1993, p. 163) and ending caring relationships is justified for the sake of
one’s own well-being and not just out of concern for others. For her, what
is missing in Noddings’ relational ontology ‘is an account of the individuals
within caring relations as important in themselves’ (Davion, 1993, p. 175):
for Noddings (1995), the ideal self is ‘developed in congruence with one’s
best remembrance of caring and being cared-for’ (Noddings, 1995, p. 22),
leaving little room for autonomy. Keller (1997), too, notes that care interrupts autonomy. Through the obligation to care, it diminishes women’s
ability to choose their relationships and to end relationships where care is
not reciprocated. Koehn (1998) raises concerns that the practices of
caring, trusting and empathising can frequently be harmful or manipulative,
since there is nothing self-regulating in these practices to prevent this. Thus,
making care the core virtue raises problems, as do ethics of care approaches
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1801
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
that reinforce traditional gender roles for women, since they ignore virtues
besides care and hinder women’s ability to become autonomous (Davion,
1993; Held, 1995a; Keller, 1997; Koehn, 1998). Following in the Kantian tradition, Meyers (1987) argues that a person’s self-respect stems from the
knowledge that she is autonomous. For her, autonomy and self-respect
are mutually reinforcing and are best understood dialogically. According
to Keller (1997), this is fruitful for several reasons:
It explains how a person can be very much connected to others and still be
autonomous. It illustrates how friendships can enhance the autonomy competency, and thereby the self-respect, of someone who may be minimally
autonomous to begin with. Finally, it issues one last challenge to the individualistic conception of autonomy by conceiving autonomy [as does Habermas] as an intersubjective activity (Keller, 1997, p. 161).
Thus, we see that many feminist ethicists who have problems with the ethics
of care approach, most notably its propensity to rob women of their autonomy, advance dialogical ethics as a more promising alternative (Keller,
1997; Koehn, 1998). However, more usually, the ethics of care emphasises
the relational embeddedness of care. This is typified in Mol’s (2008)
approach, where she attempts to distinguish between an ethics of care
and an ethics of choice by demonstrating that each has its own logic: ‘In
the logic of care, the crucial moral act is not making moral value judgements, but engaging in practical activities . . . . So in the logic of care, defining “good”, “worse” and “better” does not precede practice, but forms part
of it’ (Mol, 2008, p. 75). She hereby attempts to show that care as ethical
practice has an inbuilt logic that flows from the care-giving relationship
and that this is distinguishable from the logic of choice—the objective
decision-making approach: when it comes to the logic of choice, ‘a good
decision depends on properly balancing the advantages and disadvantages
of various courses of action’ (Mol, 2008, p. 53) but the logic of care ‘is a
matter of attending to the balance inside, and the flows between, a fragile
body and its intricate surroundings’ (Mol, 2008, p. 34). It ‘suggests that
attuning the many viscous variables of a life to each other is a continuing
process. It goes on and on, until the day we die’ (Mol, 2008, p. 54) and ‘is
concerned with actively improving life’ (Mol, 2008, p. 89). Hence, the practical activities involved in Mol’s (2008) logic of care are relational and
include: good communication as a crucial precondition for good care;
exchanging stories as a moral activity in and of itself; and relating to
others as an inextricable part of collectively investing in care. More
broadly, as we see below, this activity is not merely a private, relational
or moral matter, but is also political and relates to how government takes
care of its citizens. How the burden of care is shared is the crucial question
for feminists.
1802 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Care as a policy issue
For many advocates of an ethics of care approach, care is more than an
ethical practice based on emotional connections confined to the private
sphere of relationships. Prominent advocates of this broader position on
care, Tronto (1993) and Sevenhuijsen (1998, 2000, 2003) believe that
many feminist care ethicists overlook the role of care in broader social
policy. They take care as an emotional bond that establishes relational connections to another level, drawing on feminist arguments about care as
invisible, unpaid and undervalued women’s work. They politicise care
by highlighting the marginalisation and devaluation of care in
Western society. For them, care is a complex moral and political issue: it
is not merely a private interpersonal or familial matter, but a public
welfare concern. Furthermore, citizen-consumers have a democratic right
to care and policy makers and care providers have a responsibility to
listen to their concerns. Even welfare recipients—usually described as
passive and dependent—are active care providers and ‘normal citizens’
(Sevenhuijsen et al., 2006) caring for themselves and others.
Daly and Lewis (2003) likewise see care as an important policy issue,
believing that one cannot understand the complex nature of contemporary
welfare transformation without grappling with the issue of care. They see
the welfare state growing in different ways through the state, market,
family and voluntary sector working together in evolving partnerships. Academic debates about whether care is a virtue, ethical practice, personal
responsibility or public issue run the risk of costing it its core meaning as
‘the activities and relations involved in meeting the physical and emotional
requirements of dependent adults and children, and the normative, economic and social frameworks within which these are assigned and carried
out’ (Daly and Lewis, 2003, p. 285).
One might also see Mol’s (2008) ‘logic of choice’ in political terms as the
workings of the neo-liberal system of choice and responsibility in the shifting
boundaries of care to meet increasing demand in contemporary welfare
states. For Daly and Lewis (2003), the supply has decreased as more
women enter the labour force, the population ages, norms about family
change and so on, while demand increases. This has forced governments
to think of alternative ways of providing care formally in the public
sphere, since, following the feminist onslaught, society can no longer rely
on the family as a source of informal care. Daly and Lewis (2003) refute simplistic, neo-liberal, managerialist and feminist arguments about welfare cutbacks. They advocate expansions into new forms of care and welfare
provision. They show how the kinds of new arrangements emerging in
various countries rest on historical patterns of provision and the shrinking
of family resources for caring. The image of family solidarity prevalent in
social policy during the development of the welfare state is giving way to a
more realistic, gendered understanding of family. More importantly, it is
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1803
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
the ‘decreasing availability of private unpaid [family-based] care’ (Daly and
Lewis, 2003, p. 291) that has led to its expansion into the private market
sector. It is this that has led to the ‘increasing significance of care as a
sphere of social policy and the merits of a social care-based analysis of the
welfare state’ (Daly and Lewis, 2003, p. 291). This shift is thus not a mere
function of ideological arguments between Left and Right—or between
radical and liberal feminists—but a matter of necessity based on the
supply and demand of social care. Thus, when analysing new policies, it is
essential not to generalise, but to acknowledge the inevitable diversity of
care provision in increasingly pluralistic societies. In this context, marketisation has produced both positive and negative results: it has led to more accurate targeting of need and a larger professional role in deciding who receives
care in the context of limited resources, and has provided greater individual
choice. Thus, the movement of care out of the family into the market is not
necessarily a bad thing and, in many ways, is what feminists have pressed for.
Social work and social care
Social work’s caring role in society has long been acknowledged, yet, ironically, much of social work’s critical discourse has sought to distance professional practice from its caring beginnings (Meagher and Parton, 2004).
Social work has also long appreciated the importance of relationships and
everything that goes on within them—communication, dialogue, attentiveness, engagement, listening, rejection, understanding, meaning, interpretation, knowing, situated thinking and so on. Hence, Featherstone (in
Gray and Webb, 2010) is sceptical of the seductive wiles of the ethics of
care, which, she says, promises a great deal, delivers quite a lot, but just
not some of the key things social work needs. In this vein, Lloyd (2006)
wonders what best serves the ends of dependent populations: the ‘moral
agenda’ of the ethics of care, ‘virtuous practice’ of virtue ethics or ‘the political agenda’ of social justice. She, like Orme (2002), appeals for social
workers to closely examine the relationship between justice and care,
especially since Third Way social policy robs individuals of their status as
rights-bearing subjects. Those who do not fit the neo-liberal self-care, selfresponsibility agenda are forced to ‘rely on the discretion and benevolence
of others who care for them’ (Lloyd, 2006, p. 1173). Most social work clients
have little choice. In short, for social workers, justice and care are inseparable, rights to care are essential and care is a social obligation.
Justice and care
The debate between justice and care arises from Gilligan’s (1982) pivotal
observation that men operate within an ethic of justice that stresses rights
1804 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
and rules, while women function within an ethics of care centred on
relationships and responsibilities. From a feminist ethicist’s perspective,
the conflict between justice and care is a legacy of Universalist Kantian
and Utilitarian ethics in which rights and justice are seen to belong to
rational, autonomous individuals in control of their own destiny. The
Western preoccupation with individual rights, feminists argue, overshadowed the interpersonal and emotional dimensions of human life, leading
to care being devalued and confined to the private sphere (Sevenhuijsen,
1998, 2000). The argument is that the common human need for care challenges the male-dominated normative perception of the individual as independent and autonomous (Tronto, 1993). In her most recent book on The
Ethics of Care (2006), Held goes so far as to argue that care is more
fundamental than justice, utility or virtue, which represents something of
a departure from her previous position:
I now think that caring relations should form the wider moral framework
into which justice should be fitted. Care seems the most basic moral value
. . . . Without care . . . there would be no persons to respect and no families
to improve . . . . Within a network of caring, we can and should demand
justice, but justice should not push care to the margins, imagining justice’s
political embodiment as the model of morality, which is what has been
done (Held, 2006, pp. 71–2).
Some feminist ethicists, like Benhabib (1995), Koehn (1998), Tronto (2000)
and Held (1993, 1995b) in her earlier work, maintain that an ‘ethic of
justice’ has to be balanced with an ‘ethic of care’, despite the complex
and contentious relationship between them. Indeed, since the development
of the autonomous adult human being requires nurture and care, there is a
strong case for an ethics of care on the one hand and, given the constraints
within which care is practised, for an impartial, fair and universal concept of
justice on the other. This is important in light of the conditions in which
externally determined standards are brought to bear on relationships of
care, particularly when people have impaired decision-making capabilities.
Hence, there must be an agreed standard of care for those in need to avoid
paternalism, subjectivism and unfairness. Care must be connected to justice
or it would become a random practice. It is crucial, then, to acknowledge
the inextricable links between the political ‘rights and justice’ agenda and
the moral ‘care’ agenda and to recognise the impact of each on the other.
As Gray and Lovat (2007) note, even though we might have laws and procedures to ensure a just system wherein people have rights, without compassion, there is no guarantee that these systems will function in a
humane way. Neither justice nor care, by itself, is sufficient. Justice says
everyone is entitled to the same treatment but an ethics of care may lead
to differential treatment, as it may dictate that some people are needier
of care than others based on situational and often subjective judgements.
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1805
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Thus, an ethics of care is not necessarily just and a just system is not necessarily caring.
Conclusion
This paper has examined the feminist ethics of care as an emergent
ethical theory that casts ethical dispositions in a different way from deontology, consequentialism and utilitarianism, arguing that it is closer to
virtue ethics. It has been suggested that, despite the philosophical tensions within and between these disparate theories, discussions about
ethics are enriched by these diverse influences. Despite some attempts
to address the limitations of the ethics of care described above, it is
not yet a complete ethical theory. Hence, social workers need to question
whether the relational ethics of care holds better prospects for delivering
quality outcomes for clients than existing ethical theory in social work,
which seeks universal standards of impartiality: for example, does it
offer greater potential for enhancing trust, respect for differences and
mutual recognition than social work’s existing deontological theories of
human rights and social justice? Can the ethics of care address the complexities of the problems with which social workers deal? Does it provide
strong reasons to care within the harsh practice environments in which
social workers work, where the ‘practice of value’ is becoming ever
more difficult?
There seem to be conflicting ideas on such matters and confusion as to
whether the ethics of care is an ethical theory about the norms relating to
the giving and receiving of care that brings feminist values to the fore or
a broader political theory. Some believe that the ethics of care has moved
beyond its feminist origins, with many care ethicists recognising that men,
too, have caring capacities and assume caring roles (Featherstone, 2001;
Banks, 2006; Lloyd, 2006). Others have broadened the ethics of care to a
political theory wherein care is no longer merely a matter of what occurs
in private relationships, but is a social good that society must provide.
Some suggest that there is no longer a need for an ethics of care discourse,
since contemporary social policy recognises social obligations linked to
service users’ caring needs (Daly and Lewis, 2003). Parton (2003) and
Meagher and Parton (2004) have argued that professionals are unable to
practise an ethics of care in highly regulated, risk-aversive, managerial
social service environments nor, argues Featherstone (in Gray and Webb,
2010), can it deliver what social work needs to address the complexities
of the problems social workers deal with and the harsh practice environments in which they work.
Nevertheless, ways must be found to humanise our practice and draw
attention to the importance of care and compassion, not only at the individual level, but also at the societal level, as Nussbaum (2001) does, by offering
1806 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
a way to do this via virtue ethics. As a neo-Aristotelian, Nussbaum (2001)
holds fast to the idea that society has to inculcate compassion in its citizens
in order to ensure that they will be disposed favourably to those in need.
Virtue ethicists argue that this must be done through values education.
Care ethicists hold that this is best done in caring relationships. As social
workers, we see the importance of values education and relationships in
instilling compassion, consideration and care of others. For Held (2006),
the most important task of care ethicists is to find ways to widen the
bonds of caring among people. Like social workers, she is primarily concerned with the care competent adults give to vulnerable people. As
social workers, we would do better expending our energy on creating conditions under which caring for these vulnerable others occurs and where
they indeed feel cared for—conditions characterised by attentiveness,
receptivity, responsiveness, relatedness, mutuality and reciprocity.
Crucially, compassion or care or any other virtuous attitude does not
happen automatically. It is not a natural human response, but a learned
and inculcated moral attitude gained through socialisation. It requires a
deep understanding of morality such as that which the study of moral philosophy can give. Social work would do well to return to this neglected moral
link in order to better understand the moral complexities of its work and the
propensity of the emerging ethical theories herein discussed to advance its
mission in society.
Accepted: August 2009
1. Notably, this is the eighth edition of Loewenberg and Dolgoff’s original Ethical
Decisions for Social Work Practice (1982).
References
Aristotle (1954) The Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle, translated by Sir David Ross,
London, Oxford University Press.
Banks, S. (2006) Ethics and Values in Social Work, 3rd edn, Basingstoke, Palgrave.
Banks, S. (2008) ‘Critical commentary: Social work ethics’, British Journal of Social
Work, 38, pp. 1238–49.
Bauman, Z. (1993) Postmodern Ethics, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers.
Benhabib, S. (1995) ‘The debate over women and moral theory revisited’, in Meehan, J.
(ed.), Feminists Read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse, London,
Routledge.
Bowles, W., Collingridge, M., Curry, S. and Valentine, B. (2006) Ethical Practice in Social
Work, Sydney, Allen and Unwin.
Clark, C. (2000) Social Work Ethics: Politics, Principles and Practice, Basingstoke,
Palgrave.
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1807
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Clark, C. (2006) ‘Moral character in social work’, British Journal of Social Work, 36, pp.
75–89.
Clark, C. L. and Asquith, S. (1985) Social Work and Social Philosophy: A Guide to Practice, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Congress, E. (1999) Social Work Values and Ethics: Identifying and Resolving Professional Dilemmas, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth.
Daly, M. and Lewis, J. (2003) ‘The concept of social care and the analysis of contemporary welfare states’, British Journal of Sociology, 51(2), pp. 281–98.
Davion, V. (1993) ‘Autonomy, integrity, and care’, Social Theory and Practice, 19(2), pp.
161–82.
Dean, R. G. and Rhodes, M. L. (1998) ‘Social constructionism and ethics: What makes a
“better” story?’, Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services,
79(3), pp. 254–63.
Dolgoff, F., Loewenberg, F. and Harrington, D. (2009) Ethical Decisions for Social Work
Practice, 8th edn, Belmont, CA, Thomson, Brooks Cole.
England, H. (1986) Social Work as Art: Making Sense for Good Practice, London, Allen
and Unwin.
Evans, J. (1995) Feminist Theory Today: An Introduction to Second-Wave Feminism,
London, Sage.
Faludi, S. (1992) Backlash: The Undeclared War against Women, London, Chatto and
Windus.
Featherstone, B. (2001) ‘Where to for feminist social work?’, Critical Social Work, 2(1),
available online at www.uwindsor.ca/units/socialwork/critical.nsf/982f0e5f06b5c9a
285256d6e006cff78/fe61dbdb7d2330de85256ea800646086!OpenDocument (retrieved
10 May, 2008).
Featherstone, B. (2010 forthcoming) ‘Ethic of care’, in Gray, M. and Webb, S. A. (eds),
Ethics and Value Perspectives in Social Work, Basingstoke, Palgrave.
Friedan, B. (1963) The Feminine Mystique, Harmondsworth, Penguin.
Friedan, B. (1981) The Second Stage, New York, Summit Books.
Gilligan, C. (1982) In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, Harvard, MA, Harvard University Press.
Goldstein, H. (1987) ‘The neglected moral link in social work practice’, Social Work,
32(3), pp. 181–7.
Gray, M. and Lovat, T. (2006) ‘The shaky high moral ground of postmodernist ethics’,
Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 42(3/4), pp. 201–12.
Gray, M. and Lovat, T. (2007) ‘Horse and carriage: Why Habermas’s discourse ethics
gives virtue a praxis in social work’, Ethics and Social Welfare, 1(3), pp. 310–28.
Gray, M. and Stofberg, J. A. (2000) ‘Social work and respect for persons’, Australian
Journal of Social Work, 53(3), pp. 55–61.
Gray, M. and Webb, S. A. (2008) ‘Social work as art revisited’, International Journal of
Social Welfare, 17(1), pp. 182–93.
Gray, M. and Webb, S. A. (2009) ‘The return of the political in social work’, International
Journal of Social Welfare, 18, pp. 111–15.
Gray, M. and Webb, S. A. (eds) (2010). Ethics and Value Perspectives in Social work.
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Hayes, D. and Houston, S. (2007) ‘Lifeworld, system and family group conferences:
Habermas’ contribution to discourse in child protection’, British Journal of Social
Work, 37, pp. 987–1006.
1808 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Held, V. (1993) Feminist Morality: Tranforming Culture, Society, and Politics, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press.
Held, V. (ed.) (1995a) Justice and Care: Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics, Oxford,
Westview Press.
Held, V. (1995b) ‘The meshing of care and justice’, Hypatia, 10(2), pp. 128–32.
Held, V. (2006) The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global, New York, Oxford
University Press.
Herman, B. (1993) The Practice of Moral Judgment, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Houston, S. (2003) ‘Establishing virtue in social work: A response to McBeath and
Webb’, British Journal of Social Work, 33, pp. 819–24.
Hugman, R. (2005) New Approaches in Ethics for the Caring Professions: Taking
Account of Change for Caring Professions, London, Palgrave MacMillan.
Keller, J. (1997) ‘Autonomy, relationship, and feminist ethcs’, Hypatia, 12(2), pp. 152–64.
Koehn, D. (1998)RethinkingFeminist Ethics:Care, Trust andEmpathy, London,Routledge.
Le´vinas, E. (1998) Entre Nous: On Thinking of the Other, translated by M. B. Smith and
B. Harshav, New York, Columbia University Press.
Lloyd, L. (2006) ‘A caring profession? The ethics of care and social work with older
people’, British Journal of Social Work, 36, pp. 1171–85.
Lovat, T. and Gray, M. (2008) ‘Towards a proportionist social work ethics: A Habermasian perspective’, British Journal of Social Work, 38, pp. 1100–14.
Mattison, M. (2000) ‘Ethical decision-making: The person in the process’, Social Work,
45(3), pp. 201–12.
McAuliffe, D. (1999) ‘Clutching at codes: Resources that influence social work decisions
in cases of ethical conflict’, Professional Ethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 17(3/4),
pp. 9–24.
McAuliffe, D. and Chenoweth, L. (2008) ‘Leave no stone unturned: The inclusive model
of ethical decision making’, Ethics and Social Welfare, 2(1), pp. 38–49.
McBeath, G. and Webb, S. (2002) ‘Virtue ethics and social work: Being lucky, realistic,
and not doing one’s duty’, British Journal of Social Work, 32, pp. 1015–36.
Meagher, G. and Parton, N. (2004) ‘Modernising social work and the ethics of care’,
Social Work and Society, 2(1), pp. 10–27.
Meehan, J. (ed.) (1995) Feminists read Habermas: Gendering the Subject of Discourse,
London, Routledge.
Meyers, D. T. (1987) ‘The socialized self and individual autonomy: An intersection
between philosophy and psychology’, in Kittay, E. and Meyers, D. T. (eds), Women
and Moral Theory, Maryland, Rowman and Littlefiled Press.
Mol, A. (2008) The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice, London,
Routledge.
Morelock, K. T. (1997) ‘The search for virtue: Ethics teaching in MSW programs’,
Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 14(1/2), pp. 69–87.
Murdoch, I. (1970) The Sovereignty of Good, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Noddings, N. (1984) Caring: A Feminine Approach to Moral Education, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Noddings, N. (1995) ‘Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education’, in
Held, V. (ed.), Justice and Care: Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics, Oxford, Westview Press.
Noddings, N. (2003) Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education, 2nd
edn, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press.
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1809
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Nussbaum, M. (2001) Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, New York,
Cambridge University Press.
Orme, J. (2002) ‘Social work: Gender, care and justice’, British Journal of Social Work,
32, pp. 799–814.
Orme, J. and Rennie, G. (2006) ‘The role of registration in ensuring ethical practice’,
International Social Work, 49(3), pp. 333–44.
Parton, N. (2003) ‘Rethinking professional practice: The contributions of social
constructionism and the feminist “ethics of care”’, British Journal of Social Work,
33, pp. 1–16.
Phoca, S. and Wright, R. (1999) Introducing Postfeminism, Cambridge, Icon.
Ragg, N. (1977) People Not Cases: A Philosophical Approach to Social Work, London,
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Reamer, F. (1995) Social Work Values and Ethics, New York, Columbia University Press.
Reamer, F. (1998a) Current Controversies in Social Work Ethics: Case Examples,
Washington, DC, NASW.
Reamer, F. (1998b) ‘The evolution of social work values and ethics’, Social Work, 43(6),
pp. 488–500.
Reamer, F. (1999) The Philosophical Foundations of Social Work, New York, Columbia
University Press.
Reamer, F. (2001) The Social Work Ethics Audit: A Risk Management Tool, Washington,
DC, NASW Press.
Rhodes, M. L. (1986) Ethical Dilemmas in Social Service, Boston, Routledge and Kegan
Paul.
Robinson, W. and Reeser, L. (2000) Ethical Decision-Making in Social Work, Boston,
Allyn and Bacon.
Rossiter, A. (2006) ‘The “beyond” of ethics in social work’, Canadian Social Work
Review, 23(1–2), pp. 139–44.
Rossiter, A., Prilleltensky, I. and Walsh-Bowers, R. (2000) ‘A postmodern perspective on
professional ethics’, in Fawcett, B., Featherstone, B., Fook, J. and Rossiter, A. (eds),
Practice and Research in Social Work, London, Routledge, pp. 83–103.
Sevenhuijsen, S. (1998) Citizenship and the Ethics of Care, London, Routledge.
Sevenhuijsen, S. (2000) ‘Caring in the Third Way: The relation between obligation,
responsibility and care in Third Way discourse’, Critical Social Policy, 20(1), pp. 5–37.
Sevenhuijsen, S. (2003) ‘Principle ethics and the ethic of care: Can they go together?’,
Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 39(4), pp. 393–9.
Sevenhuijsen, S., Bozalek, V., Gouws, A. and Minnaar-McDonald, M. (2006) ‘South
African social welfare policy: An analysis through the ethic of care’, in Hamington,
M. and Miller, D. C. (eds), Socializing Care, New York, Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers, Inc.
Siporin, M. (1982) ‘Moral philosophy in social work today’, Social Service Review, 56(4),
pp. 516–38.
Siporin, M. (1983) ‘Morality and immorality in working with clients’, Social Thought,
9(4), pp. 10–28.
Siporin, M. (1992) ‘Strengthening the moral mission of social work’, in Reid, F., Popple,
N. and Philip, R. (eds), The Moral Purposes of Social Work: The Character and Intentions of a Profession, Chicago, IL, Nelson-Hall, pp. 71–99.
Steinem, G. (1992) The Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, New York,
Little Brown and Co.
Timms, N. (1983) Social Work Values: An Enquiry, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
1810 Mel Gray
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023
Timms, N. and Watson, D. (eds) (1978) Philosophy in Social Work, London, Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Tronto, J. C. (1993) Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care,
New York, Routledge.
Toronto, J. C. (2000) ‘Demokratie als fu¨rsorgliche Praxis (Democracy as a caring practice]’, Trans. Regina Othmer. Feministische Studien, 18 extra, pp. 25–42.
van den Bersselaar, O. D. (2005) ‘Virtue-ethics as a device for narratives in social work:
The possibility of empowerment by moralising’, Lectoraat Reflectie op het handelen,
available online at www.reflectietools.nl/documentatie/Virtue_Ethics_VvdB.pdf
(retrieved 20 November, 2008).
Webb, S. A. (2006) Social Work in a Risk Society: Social and Political Perspectives,
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Whelehan, I. (1995) Modern Feminist Thought: From the Second Wave to ‘PostFeminism’, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
Wilkes, R. (1981) Social Work with Undervalued Groups, London, Tavistock.
Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work 1811
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/40/6/1794/1626642 by Flinders University user on 26 March 2023