Philosophy Paper #5 Care Ethics Analysis
Shane Flaherty
Economics Student
SBS 370: Toward A Global Ethics // Analytic Methods & Practical Skills III
March 11th, 2026
Introduction
Care ethics provides an interesting lens to analyze our governing systems through. Carol Gilligan’s care ethics focuses on and emphasizes the morality rooted in our individual relationships, the compassion that results from these relationships, and the responsiveness to each other’s needs that we portray in these relationships. Care ethics works alongside the traditional justice-based systems we have explored thus far. It explores the individual obligations that stem from interpersonal connections and the accompanying moral principles that serve as a philosophical guide.
Macro Analysis
As a moral framework and philosophical tool, care ethics offers a distinctive framework for analyzing inequality because it prioritizes relationships, interdependence, and contextual responsibility rather than abstract universal rules or standards. When applied to modern issues, such as underfunded education, care ethics reveal the structural inequality that’s produced through unequal investments in relationships and institutions that sustain human development. Utilizing the lens of care ethics, we can identify how the distribution of resources affects both human capital formation and the relational networks that support long-term economic mobility. Care ethics emphasizes the moral significance of attentiveness, responsiveness, and mutual dependency. Within economic parameters, these values correspond to the social conditions that allow individuals to cultivate productive capabilities within families, schools, and communities. Educational institutions are among the most powerful locations where these relationships develop, however, persistent disparities in school funding, which are often tied to local property taxes, produce unequal educational environments. Lower income community schools often face shortages of instructional resources, higher student to teacher ratios, deteriorating infrastructure and student performance, and reduced access to enrichment programs. These shortcomings undermine the relational dimension of education that care ethics deems essential. This is because teachers operating under such constraints have reduced capacity to provide individualized attention, mentorship, inspiration, and emotional support, all of which are crucial aspects of effective learning.
Micro analysis
Other aspects of modern life provide useful contexts for us to examine and analyze with care ethics. One such example of this can be seen within the homelessness and housing affordability crisis in the United States. Housing debates are often framed in terms of supply constraints, zoning regulations, and price elasticity. However, a care ethics lens allows us to identify housing as a foundational condition for sustaining human relationships and social stability, rather than strictly a market commodity. Standard economic analysis would suggest that housing is treated as a durable consumption good with the real estate market ultimately determining the price. Despite this assumption, housing also functions as a relational infrastructure. Stable home environments allow individuals to maintain family relationships, participate in communities, and engage in economic and social activities. Modern housing markets fail to provide an adequate supply of affordable options. The fallout and instability from this extends far beyond the loss of physical shelter. The insecurity experienced by the homeless disrupts family cohesion, childcare arrangements, employment continuity, and educational outcomes. From Gilligan’s point of view, these disruptions represent a breakdown in the social institutions necessary for maintaining caring relationships. Homelessness represents the most extreme manifestation of housing inequality. The US has hundreds of thousands of individuals who experience homelessness on any given night, with many more facing housing instabilities. Not only are these individuals affected, but so are their children across generations. Frequent relocations and eviction risks disrupt school continuity and weaken or entirely abolish social support systems. These compounding disadvantages impair educational attainment and long-term economic mobility, reinforcing poverty across generations. Lastly, homelessness generates significant economic externalities. Public budgets are heavily affected by associated symptoms such as emergency healthcare services, increased law enforcement intervention, and temporary shelter programs. Overall, investing in stable housing solutions proves more efficient in the long run while simultaneously addressing ethical concerns about social responsibility.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Gilligan’s care ethics equips us with a powerful complement to traditional justice-based frameworks when analyzing political economic problems. When we emphasize the moral importance of relationships, interdependence, and responsiveness to human need, care ethics reveal how structural inequalities often emerge from insufficient investment in the social institutions that sustain these relationships. The disparities exhibited in education funding illustrate how unequal resource allocation weakens and undermines the environment necessary for effective learning and human capital development. Similarly, the housing and homelessness crisis in the US serves as an example of how market-oriented approaches can overlook the fundamental role that stable housing plays in maintaining family dynamics, community participation and long-term economic mobility. With the utilization of a care ethics lens, these issues become not merely technical issues of policy design or market efficiency but instead represent ethical failures to adequately allocate resources to support the networks of care that allow individuals and communities to flourish. Therefore, the integration of care ethics into economic policy and analysis encourages legislators to consider not only efficiency and growth, but also whether governing systems cultivate the relational conditions necessary for mobility, stability, shared prosperity, and dignity.
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References
How money matters: Education funding and student outcomes. Learning Policy Institute. (2025, April 9). https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/how-money-matters-factsheet
Jackson, L. (2024, June 20). Schools don’t care: Rearticulating care ethics in education: Educational philosophy and theory: Vol 57 , no 3 – get access. Taylor & Francis Online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2024.2367548
Soucy, D., Hall, A., & Moses, J. (2025, September 4). State of Homelessness: 2025 edition. National Alliance to End Homelessness. https://endhomelessness.org/state-of-homelessness/#report
Watts, R. (2021, November). Homelessness is an ethical issue in America | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association. Journal of Ethics. https://journalofethics-ama–assn-org.translate.goog/article/homelessness-ethical-issue-america/2021-11?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=id&_x_tr_hl=id&_x_tr_pto=tc
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