Deck 12: Different Gender, Different Ethics

Question 1

Discuss the theory that there is a connection between virtue ethics and modern feminism.

Answer 1

No Answer

Question 2

Discuss how Mary Wollstonecraft addressed women's situation in the eighteenth century.

Answer 2

No Answer

Question 3

Give an example of a gender-specific expression and replace it with a gender-neutral expression.

Answer 3

No Answer

Question 4

Give a brief account of the similarities and differences between classical, difference, radical, and equity feminism.

Question 5

Explain and evaluate the philosophy of radical feminism with reference to Andrea Dworkin's views in her book Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females.

Question 6

Which brand of feminism do you think is the most relevant today? Are you a feminist? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Question 7

Discuss Carol Gilligan's influence on modern thinking about gender issues.

Question 8

What did Beauvoir mean when she stated that the only way for a woman to become authentic is to shed her role as "deviant"?

Question 9

In your view, are men and women fundamentally different or basically similar if given a nonsexist type of education? Your answer should include a brief description of Beauvoir's and Gilligan's theories.

Question 10

Discuss the Heinz dilemma. Is Jake correct, or is Amy correct? Is Gilligan's criticism correct? Did Amy misunderstand what Kohlberg meant by his question?

Question 11

Discuss the different interpretations of radical feminism.

Question 12

Sommers claims that boys are now being neglected in some schools that favor giving girls the attention that boys once used to get. Do you think she could be right? Why or why not?

Question 13

Are sex roles determined primarily by "nature" or by "nurture"? Explain. Speculate about the consequences of the "nature" and "nurture" views in terms of the policy of gender equality.

Question 14

Evaluate Gilligan's following statement: "Sensitivity to the needs of others and the assumption of responsibility for taking care lead women to attend to voices other than their own and to include in their judgment other points of view." What might Levinas (Chapter 10) comment on this statement?

Question 15

In Ibsen's A Doll's House, what is the miracle that Nora expected? What was her reaction when she realized that it was not going to happen? Was it a reasonable or an unreasonable reaction? Explain.

Question 16

Is Ibsen's A Doll's House a realistic representation of how a woman would feel and react in Nora's situation and how a man would react in Helmer's situation? Is Ibsen being fair to Helmer? Discuss Nora's statement about how millions of women have sacrificed their honor for love.

Question 17

Explain the goals of radical feminism. What are Andrea Dworkin's beliefs about it?

Question 18

Apply any three types of feminism to the experiences of Maryam and Laila in Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns to illustrate one or more major claims prevalent in each of those three types of feminism. Choose from classical feminism, equity feminism, difference feminism, and radical feminism.

Question 19

In view of the trend of being gender neutral, the term "manned space mission" has been replaced by _____.

A) crewed mission
B) womanned mission
C) person mission
D) individual mission

Question 20

Which of the following statements is true of sexual dimorphism?

A) Its consequence is that the smaller sex dominates the bigger sex.
B) It means that one sex is bigger than the other.
C) It implies that men are prone to raping women.
D) It is a concept that focuses on women being superior to men.

Question 21

Which of the following is true of the development in the U.S. policy regarding women in combat?

A) In 2015, the Pentagon revised the policy, allowing women increased access to front-line positions.
B) In 2012, it was recommended for the first time that women be allowed to serve in combat.
C) In 2012, women were allowed to train for a handful of combat positions, provided they were accompanied by male soldiers.
D) In 2015, all combat positions became available to women.

Question 22

Which one is NOT a typical argument against allowing women in combat?

A) Allowing women in combat distracts men.
B) Very few women are as psychologically strong as men.
C) Most women are not qualified enough to be allowed in combat.
D) It seems uncivilized to have women in combat.

Question 23

Which of the following statements is LEAST true of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz?

A) She was a child prodigy.
B) She was a feminist.
C) She was an atheist.
D) She was a voracious reader.

Question 24

Which of the following individuals was an early spokesperson for women's rights in France?

A) Poulain de la Barre
B) Talleyrand
C) Makrina of Neocaesarea
D) Harriet Taylor

Question 25

John Stuart Mill believed that

A) society conditions women to be subservient to men.
B) it is the inherent nature of women to be subservient to men.
C) we do not know what it would be like for women not to be subjected to men.
D) women have had far more influence in early Middle Eastern cultures than we think.

Question 26

Which of the following individuals wrote, "I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness"?

A) John Stuart Mill
B) Simone de Beauvoir
C) Mary Wollstonecraft
D) Carol Gilligan

Question 27

Which of the following women is associated with third-wave feminism?

A) Elizabeth Cady Stanton
B) Lucretia Mott
C) Carol Gilligan
D) Betty Friedan

Question 28

Who among the following is an equity feminist?

A) Susan Faludi
B) Christina Hoff Sommers
C) Carolyn Heilbrun
D) Catharine MacKinnon

Question 29

Which of the following approaches is NOT mentioned by Rosenstand?

A) Equity feminism
B) Classical feminism
C) Difference feminism
D) Christian feminism

Question 30

According to radical feminism, discrimination against women stems from the

A) structure of patriarchy.
B) inherent submissive nature of women.
C) Christian Church.
D) biological difference between men and women.

Question 31

Simone de Beauvoir believed the choice of gender freedom is best made if

A) the traditional option of stay-at-home-mom is not available to women.
B) the sexes are seen as fundamentally different from each other, with one dominating the other.
C) women are given true freedom of choice with respect to their gender roles.
D) people acknowledge that the subservience of the little girl is natural.

Question 32

The theory of psychosexual neutrality states that

A) sex roles are purely a matter of genetics, or nature.
B) sex roles are purely a matter of upbringing, or nurture.
C) sex roles can be determined by a number of unpredictable factors.
D) everyone should strive to become a sexually neutral person.

Question 33

Which of the following situations best describes the Heinz dilemma used by the well-known psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg?

A) Heinz's wife is ill, and he has no money for medication. He has to decide whether he should steal the medication she needs.
B) Heinz's wife has an affair with another man, and he has to decide whether to file for divorce.
C) Heinz's wife has stolen medication, and he has to decide whether he should tell the police.
D) Heinz is in love with another woman, and he has to decide whether he should tell his wife about this.

Question 34

Gilligan evaluated Amy's and Jake's responses to the Heinz dilemma by stating that

A) Amy had not understood that saving a life was more important than maintaining the law.
B) Jake thought in terms of caring, whereas Amy thought in terms of justice.
C) Amy heard the question differently than Jake, but her response makes as much sense as Jake's.
D) Jake had understood the situation perfectly, whereas Amy had misinterpreted it.

Question 35

In Northern European countries, family values have actually drifted in Gilligan's direction, and some see that as a result of

A) ancient traditions and economic structures.
B) difference feminism.
C) radical feminism.
D) politicians patronizing Gilligan's ideas.

Question 36

"Feminization of the educational system" is another way of summarizing how

A) girls are getting increasingly interested in sports.
B) girls are performing better in exams than boys.
C) girls are increasingly getting more attention in schools than boys.
D) educational institutions are dominated by women teachers.

Question 37

The hugely popular Disney animated feature film Frozen is considered feminist in the sense that it

A) supports the princess phenomenon.
B) is a marked countermeasure to gender stereotypes.
C) propagates radical feminism.
D) focuses on explaining why patriarchy is not the root cause of gender discrimination.

Question 38

Which of the following is NOT one of the arguments against women in the workforce that Harriet Taylor Mill raises and rejects?

A) Women in the workforce create unfair competition for men.
B) Women in the workforce cause a lot of harassment in the workplace.
C) Women in the workforce cause unsuitable hardening of the female character.
D) Work does not allow women to perform the duties of motherhood.

Question 39

The marquis de Condorcet suggested that

A) education should be available to women because both men and women were, primarily, members of the human race.
B) men should live in a democracy of equals but that their women belonged at home as intelligent but subordinate partners to their spouses.
C) women and men possess fundamentally different qualities.
D) women should balance motherhood and their careers if they can.

Question 40

In "Enfranchisement of Women," which of the following reasons does Harriet Taylor Mill support to explain why women should not be allowed to work?

A) Employment conflicts with motherhood.
B) Employment "hardens" women.
C) Women add to the competition in the workplace.
D) None of the answers is correct.

Question 41

An equity feminist holds that

A) the battle for equality has not yet been won.
B) women and men possess fundamentally different qualities.
C) gender discrimination is by and large a thing of the past.
D) we should think of women as victims of patriarchy.

Question 42

Which of the following individuals wrote, "Thus women not only define themselves in a context of human relationship but also judge themselves in terms of their ability to care. Women's place in man's life cycle has been that of nurturer, caretaker, and helpmate, the weaver of those networks of relationships on which she in turn relies"?

A) Simone de Beauvoir
B) Mary Wollstonecraft
C) Henrik Ibsen
D) Carol Gilligan

Question 43

In Ibsen's A Doll's House, the miracle that Nora hopes for is that

A) Krogstad will tear up her I.O.U.
B) her father will recover from his illness.
C) Torvald will show his love by taking the blame for her forgery.
D) Torvald will forgive her for her wrongdoing.

Question 44

Feminism was originally associated with acquiring political and social rights for women.

Question 45

Francois Poulain de la Barre argued that men and women are fundamentally different because they have different powers of reasoning.

Question 46

Impartiality and fairness are key concepts for modern feminism because much of modern feminism is modeled after Rawls's theory of the original position.

Question 47

There is a strong movement in the world to get rid of "gender-neutral" language in favor of "gender-specific" language.

Question 48

The term "sexual dimorphism" means that the two sexes of a species look different, with one sex usually being much bigger than the other.

Question 49

Research has shown that women's sphere of influence has been historically limited to the private sphere because they are biologically incapable of contributing significantly to the public sector.

Question 50

It has been conclusively established that all ancient cultures were once ruled by women.

Question 51

A tentative theory has suggested that many ancient cultures were matriarchal.

Question 52

In Eastern tribes, some American Indian leaders were women.

Question 53

Aristotle believed that women were deformed men.

Question 54

Research has shown that men and women use their brains in the same way but that they reach different results for the same math problems.

Question 55

Rosenstand suggests that we should establish our policy of gender equality on actual, biological equality rather than on a normative idea of equality.

Question 56

In 900 C.E., a European bishops' council ruled that women did not have souls.

Question 57

A study from 2006 found that when most men watch someone get shocked for something he or she did, the pain center of their brain is activated, which makes them empathize with the wrongdoer.

Question 58

Hildegard of Bingen was raised by the Druids in Ireland and was ordained as a bishop by mistake.

Question 59

Hildegard of Bingen founded her own convent and was the author of books on religion and science.

Question 60

During the French Revolution, women in France began expressing their opinions on the issue of equal rights for women.

Question 61

Among women ethicists before the twentieth century are Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Taylor Mill, and Antoinette Brown Blackwell.

Question 62

Mary Wollstonecraft suggested that it is unfair to women to socialize them to be uneducated, unthinking creatures who are only eager to please.

Question 63

Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the few women of the eighteenth century who directly addressed women's issues.

Question 64

John Stuart Mill was a nineteenth-century spokesperson for women's rights.

Question 65

First-wave feminism is another term for difference feminism.

Question 66

Second-wave feminism's goal was to acquire the right to vote for women.

Question 67

"First wave," "second wave," and "third wave" are terms that refer to the chronology of American feminism.

Question 68

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a first-wave feminist.

Question 69

American women gained the right to vote nationally in 1945, after World War II.

Question 70

The term "radical feminism" originates from the Latin word for root, radix.

Question 71

In addition to being a feminist, Simone de Beauvoir was also an existentialist.

Question 72

Gerda Lerner claimed that women have traditionally been deprived of the "power of naming and defining."

Question 73

Classical feminism is primarily concerned with the right of women to an equal share in the man's world.

Question 74

Classical feminism sees men and women as fundamentally different.

Question 75

Simone de Beauvoir believed that until women begin to think of themselves as a group, they will believe that they are abnormal human beings.

Question 76

Sarah Palin describes herself as being a feminist.

Question 77

Simone de Beauvoir agrees with the assumptions based on Freudian psychoanalysis that the subservience of the little girl is natural.

Question 78

Gilligan suggests that male and female moral attitudes are fundamentally similar.

Question 79

The theory of psychosexual neutrality held that a child can be molded into being male or female but is born neither except by virtue of the genitals.

Question 80

Christina Hoff Sommers identifies herself as a "gender feminist" in her book Who Stole Feminism?