By now, you have probably noticed that all but one of the ethical theorists we have discussed, from Aristotle to W. D. Ross, were men. And that simple fact deeply colored their approach to questions of right and wrong.
In some instances, their male bias was quite obvious. In Politics, Aristotle (350 BCE) flatly states, “The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind” (Aristotle, tr. Jowett, 1999, Book 1, Part 5). More than two millenia later, Kant reflected the same conviction, writing, “[Woman’s] philosophy is not to reason, but to sense.… Women will avoid the wicked not because it is un-right, but because it is ugly; ...
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