Feminist ethics and "privilege"

This article explores the conditions of class privilege, such as economic security and personal confidence, protection from violence, cultural dominance, and general assumptions of entitlement. These create a wide range of attitudes that reinforce and reproduce privileged positionings. Reviewing the work of feminist ethicists such as Marilyn Legge and Sharon Welch, the author explores the ramifications and responsibilities inherent in what she calls "the epistemological perspective of the privileged."

Cet article explore les conditions qui affectent le privilege lie a la classe sociale, telles: la securite economique et la confiance en soi, la protection face a la violence, la dominance culturelle, et les pris-pour-acquis concernant ce a quoi on croit avoir droit. Ceux-ci creent un eventail d'attitudes qui renforcent et reproduisent les positions du privilege. En examinant le travail de femmes telles que Marilyn Legge et Sharon Welch, l'auteure explore les ramifications et les responsabilites se rattachant a ce qu'elle appelle "la perspective episte-mologique des personnes favorisees."

How can relatively advantaged people become committed to working for social justice, for the liberation of the oppressed, and how can this commitment be expressed and carried out in ways that do not ultimately reinforce and maintain oppressions? These are central methodological questions for the academic ethicist, for, I would argue, there is a moral imperative to promote justice not only through the content of ethics, but also through its methodologies. Whether "privilege" derives from maleness, whiteness, class position, sexuality, age, or any combination of privileged locations, it is problematic for advantaged people to work for the transformation of the social structures that protect their privileges. Feminists who enjoy white privilege, class privilege, and heterosexual privilege, among others, have been challenged on this repeatedly by women of colour, working class women, and lesbians. Within both academic feminism and feminist activist movements and organizations, the meanings of white privilege, class privilege, heterosexual privilege, are being confronted by those women who have taken these social locations and their advantages for granted in their lives. The experiences of feminists have shown that the desire to right wrongs and injustices is never enough; and that working out concrete political strategies to effect an ethical vision of a just society is a very complex project in which socially advantaged people are ambiguously situated.