Feminist ethics and cultural ethos: revisiting a nursing debate

In this article the author re-examines from a feminist perspective the now well-known debate between Yarling and McElmurry and Bishop and Scudder. The central point of this critique is that a feminist ethics requires we attend to the social and institutional form of life in which given practices exist. The endorsement of a single concept, even the extremely important one of care, is insufficient for a nursing ethics. Without attention to the institutional factors, which support or reform care, we have only a feminine ethics. In this author's view, nursing needs a feminist ethics.