Resisting Injustice and the Feminist Ethics of Care in the Age of Obama

David A.J. Richards is Edwin D. Webb Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, where he teaches constitutional law and criminal law and, with Carol Gilligan, a seminar, Resisting Injustice. He is the author of seventeen books, including, most recently, Disarming Manhood: The Roots of Ethical Resistance (2005); The Case for Gay Rights: From Bowers to Lawrence and Beyond (2005); Patriarchal Religion, Sexuality, and Gender: A Critique of New Natural Law (with Nicholas Bamforth, 2008); The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchal Resistance and Democracy’s Future (with Carol Gilligan, 2009); Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law: Obama’s Challenge to Patriarchy’s Threat to Democracy (2010), and The Rise of Gay Rights and the Fall of the British Empire: Liberal Resistance and the Bloomsbury Group (forthcoming, 2013).

"Richards provides a sweeping analysis of the central place of the value of care in the civil rights movement and other progressive political movements in the United States during the last half-century. The book is essential reading for understanding the important, if often overlooked, place of care in American political life, its contribution to a more inclusive democracy, and the fundamental challenge it represents to patriarchy." —Daniel Engster, University of Texas at San Antonio"An illuminating exploration of how patriarchy damages psyches and promotes violence. Looking at the historical record as well as developmental psychology, Richards shows the potential of a feminist ethics of care to support resistance to patriarchy and to foster good relationships. The result is an optimistic view of the progress that is possible. —Virginia Held, City University of New York

• Introduction. 1: An Ethics of Care 2: Resistance in the 1960’s and Later 3: The Reactionary Politics of Patriarchy Under Threat: Patriarchy Hiding in Democracy 4: Obama’s Resistance to Patriarchy 5: The Ethics of Care: Reclaiming Feminism for Democracy