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.