Towards a situated ethics of care: Some moral dilemmas around aspects of care in an unequal society

Abstract

This article analyses moral dilemmas around aspects of care from gender and class perspectives. Based on quantitative data and qualitative research for the surrounding area of Buenos Aires, we probe how contemporary women and men in Argentina organise, experience and perceive the relationship between working life and their responsibilities for caring for family members. A situated ethics of care, as explored in the article, reinforces the notion that care is always contextual – it can only be understood within a social and political milieu – and presents distinctions among subjects that hold unequal positions in class and gender hierarchies.