Guardians of morality: A conceptual history of virtue in relationship to women and moral and political discourse in American democracy.
Item
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Title
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Guardians of morality: A conceptual history of virtue in relationship to women and moral and political discourse in American democracy.
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Identifier
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AAI3144081
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identifier
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3144081
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Creator
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Boryczka, Jocelyn Marie.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Joan C. Tronto
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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When women struggle for inclusion, freedom, and equality in American politics, they encounter the political concept of virtue that, this analysis argues, operates in political discourse to limit their success in achieving these goals. Although some feminists (Sevenhuijsen, 1998; Kittay, 1999; Tronto, 1993) and contemporary political theorists (Rawls, 1971; MacIntyre, 1981; Galston, 1991; Berkowitz, 1999) debate whether or not virtue should inform political life, a systematic analysis of this political concept remains absent from the literature. This dissertation begins to fill this gap, using James Farr's approach to creating a conceptual history. Specifically, this dissertation examine texts from three periods in American political history that highlight how virtue establishes women's relationship to politics: the eras of Puritanism, republicanism, and Jacksonian democracy (1630--1850), the sexual revolution (1963--1989), and the contemporary culture wars (1980--Present).;These periods reveal that when America's exceptional future hangs in the balance, women's virtue and vice surface in the political discourse as a moral compass to guide the nation between the push of progress and pull of tradition. Virtue functions to cast American women as the nation's moral guardians---keepers of morality and religion in the private sphere---an identity designed to align them with protecting the nation during periods of pronounced political change. Alternatively, women's vice represents a challenge to the status quo that must be contained. By aligning women's virtue with the status quo and assigning them vice for advocating progressive change, these two moral concepts function politically to deny women full citizenship. Ultimately, this project argues that virtue is a political concept detrimental to feminist political theory and ethics as well as activism. As such, this project turns to the question, are there alternative ways of thinking about morality and politics that are more consistent with achieving the feminist goals of freedom, equality, and inclusion?
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
