The Subject of Care

Eva Feder Kittay is professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the author, most recently, of Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependence. Ellen K. Feder is assistant professor of philosophy at American University. The pair have also coedited a special issue of Hypatia on the family and feminist theory.

All people spend a considerable portion of their lives either as dependents or the caretakers of dependents. The fact of human dependency-a function of youth, severe illness, disability, or frail old age-marks our lives, not only as those who are cared for, but as those who engage in the work of caring. In spite of the time, energy and resources-material and emotional, social and individual-that dependency care requires, these concerns rarely enter into philosophical, legal, and political discussions. In The Subject of Care, feminist scholars consider how acknowledgement of the fact of dependency changes our conceptions of law, political theory, and morality, as well as our very conceptions of self. Contributors develop feminist understandings of dependency, reassessing the place dependency occupies in our lives and in a just social order.

Chapter 1 PART 1. CONTESTING THE "INDEPENDENT MAN" Chapter 2 A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State Chapter 3 Autonomy, Welfare Reform, and Meaningful Work Chapter 4 Dependency and Choice: The Two Faces of Eve Chapter 5 PART 2. LEGAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS IN THE FACE OF DEPENDENCY Chapter 6 The Right to Care Chapter 7 Subsidized Lives and the Ideology of Efficiency Chapter 8 Dependency Work, Women, and the Global Economy Chapter 9 PART 3. JUST SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS AND FAMILIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEPENDENCY Chapter 10 Justice and the Labor of Care Chapter 11 The Future of Feminist Liberalism Chapter 12 Masking Dependency: The Political Role of Family Rhetoric Chapter 13 PART 4. DEPENDENCY CARE IN CASES OF SPECIFIC VULNERABILITY Chapter 14 The Decasualization of Eldercare Chapter 15 When Caring is Just and Justice is Caring: Justice and Mental Retardation Chapter 16 Poverty, Race, and the Distortion of Dependency: The Case of Kinship Care Chapter 17 "Doctor's Orders": Parents and Intersexed Children Chapter 18 SECTION 5. DEPENDENCY, SUBJECTIVITY, AND IDENTITY Chapter 19 Subjectivity as Responsivity: The Ethical Implications of Dependency Chapter 20 "Race" and the Labor of Identity Chapter 21 Dependence on Place, Dependence in Place