Mother Time - by Margaret Urban Walker (Paperback)

About the Book

Fifteen original essays open up a novel area of inquiry: the distinctively ethical dimensions of women's experiences of and in aging. Contributors distinguished in the fields of feminist ethics and the ethics of aging explore assumptions, experiences, practices, and public pol...

Book Synopsis

Fifteen original essays open up a novel area of inquiry: the distinctively ethical dimensions of women's experiences of and in aging. Contributors distinguished in the fields of feminist ethics and the ethics of aging explore assumptions, experiences, practices, and public policies that affect women's well-being and dignity in later life. The book brings to the study of women's aging a reflective dimension missing from the empirical work that has predominated to date. Ethical studies of aging have so far failed to emphasize gender. And feminist ethics has neglected older women, even when emphasizing other dimensions of 'difference.' Finally work on aging in all fields has focused on the elderly, while this volume sees aging as an extended process of negotiating personal and social change.

Review Quotes

Mother Time is a vivid, contentious invitation to engage in rethinking widespread assumptions about aging and gender, the better to understand ethical dimensions of women's experiences of aging. All essays are insightful, engaging, and clearly written.

Feminists and philosophers alike have been slow to contribute to the literature of aging. Mother Time helps make up for lost time. The essays-variously trenchant, poignant, daring, and illuminating-spur us toward social justice and personal well-being in the lives of older women.

I am greatful to the contributors to Mother Time for focusing on a number of issues associated with aging.

Sharp critiques and fresh writing startle us into more careful thought and (I hope) more caring advocacy. . . . The gender-savvy moral philosophy of this volume joins other new work in the arts and humanities to suggest that feminist age studies is going to have a good millennium.

These essays are imaginative forays into the terrain where issues of gender and of aging intersect. Various moral problems are given illuminating and overdue attention, and in addressing them, the authors clarify deficiencies in much dominant moral theorizing.

About the Author

Margaret Urban Walker is professor of philosophy at Fordham University. She is the author of Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics (Routledge, 1998). She lives in New York City.