Feminist Ethics of Care
A Note About Terminology
Our preferred term is early childhood education. However, the split systems of childcare and education in Canada requires a focus on the value of care in childcare. One of our policy goals is an integrated system of early years services within an educational system in which care ethics is central to everyone and all practices.
Theoretical Foundations
The Caring about Care project applies feminist ethics of care theories to unpack common misconceptions about early childhood educators’ practices (work) and to capture the complexities and challenges of caring for young children. In our project, we always think about care as ethical and feminist at the practice and policy level. On this page, we break down this theoretical framework, by exploring 3 questions:
How is care and care work currently understood?
What is Ethical and Feminist about Care?
What does feminist ethical care look like at the policy and practice Levels?
How is care & care work currently understood?
Our project starts with the premise that society’s understanding of care in Early Childhood Education is flawed in that care is considered separate from and “less than” education.
Canada is well-behind other countries in the development of national and provincial ECE systems due to a policy inertia. This inertia is, in part, caused by widespread misunderstanding of the importance of ECE and the value of the work of early childhood educators. When the complexities and subtleties of caring for others in early childhood settings are not recognized or valued, ECE policy doesn’t advance.
Why is Care & Care Work Undervalued?
1 / Feminization
Care work is associated with domestic life and femininity. In this view, care work is seen as natural, not requiring high levels of thinking and acting. Early childhood educators are seen as substitute mothers, providing an experience that acts as a “stand-in” for home and family. Instead, we propose that early childhood education institutions should be understood as providing enriched caring experiences that are different from mothering and parenting.
2 / Education versus Care
Within ECE work there is often an emphasis on education over care in an attempt to “professionalize” the field. Promoting education and downplaying care makes care appear less important. It also creates a false division between education and care. We suggest care and education are fundamentally intertwined– you cannot have one without the other.
3 / Economic Efficiency
Because caring well for others is time consuming and therefore expensive, it’s not seen as valuable from an economic perspective. Historically, care has been seen as a private gendered responsibility and the need for care outside the home an undesirable financial burden on government. For most provinces in Canada, ECE is administered through privatized services that receive low government investment. This makes the ECE workforce highly susceptible to exploitation (very low wages) while families struggle to access necessary care supports (an overall lack of quality services and high fees for services that do exist).
What is Ethical & Feminist about Care?
Feminism
Why is Care in Early Childhood a Feminist Issue?
Invisibility of Care
In contemporary societies care is taken for granted. When care is acknowledged it is seen as a private responsibility. Care work is assigned along intersecting gender, class and race lines.
Dominance of Economic Thought
Currently, economic relations are prioritized over care relations. “Good” lives are equated with economic prosperity rather than with the opportunity to care well for others and be well cared for.
Valuing Independence
Our society values independence in all aspects of life as the ultimate marker of success.
Power Imbalances
Contemporary societies erroneously assume that people are free and equal, failing to see the stark imbalances of power and agency between individuals and groups of people.
A feminist ethics of care challenges all these deeply flawed fundamental assumptions about how our society should work.
Ethics
Why Are Early Childhood Educator Practices Ethical?
Decision Making
Requires interpretations of children’s, educators’ and families’ needs, desires, perspectives and concerns. Educators and policy makers make decisions about how to respond to them.
Recognition of Power Differentials
Requires the constant engagement with and reflection on power differentials and the complex processes of care. This can be contrasted with natural caring and love that occurs in family contexts.
Effort
Caring about and caring well for others in political and early childhood settings always requires significant cognitive, emphatic, emotional, and reflexive energy and effort.
Complexity
Care is a way of living and being with others. It requires sensitivity to contextual nuances so that the ways educators and policy makers care is different for different children, families, and communities. The ethics of care is always concerned with the effects of care on care receivers and caregivers.
Care as Ethical & Feminist
What Does it Look Like in Policy & Practice?
(Tap the purple boxes to learn more)
Prioritizing Care
// Policy //
Governments and citizens prioritize care as central to human flourishing and well- being when developing policy.
// Practice //
Caring well for others is central to everyone and everything in the ECE program.
Recognizing Care as What it Means to be Human
// Policy //
Policy makers recognize caring for others and the need to provide care as universal human experiences.
// Practice //
Everyone (educators, managers, families and children) understands that giving and receiving care is foundational to their well-being and flourishing.
Consulting & Collaborating about Caring for Others
// Policy //
Government consults and collaborates with community members when developing caring policies and funding approaches for ECE.
// Practice //
Everyone (educators, managers, families and children) works together to establish, maintain and sustain caring for others as a central responsibility.
Working towards Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
// Policy //
Policy makers recognize how care responsibilities are allocated and perceived is a result of inequities along intersecting identities such as class, gender and race.
// Practice //
Everyone that’s a part of ECE are engaged in care and advocacy practices that foster justice, equality and mutual respect for all.
Respecting Care Work
// Policy //
Governments recognize that care work is time consuming and expensive, and as a result, it's offloaded to the market where it is poorly valued. ECE is understood to be a valuable public responsibility.
// Practice //
Educators, managers, children and families all understand that care work is complex and challenging. Educators are shown that their work is valued through decent remuneration and sufficient resources to create caring learning environments. Educators can skillfully articulate and assert the value of their work.
Valuing needs, perspectives, interests & desires of others
// Policy //
Governments take responsibility for ensuring care needs, perspectives, interests, desires and concerns of others are central to democratic life.
// Practice //
Educators are given time and resources to consider how the children’s and their own needs, perspectives, interests, concerns and desires can be met. Educators have the time to be attentive, responsive and compassionate. They resist the urge to make their care more technical and efficient.
