Final answer:
Men typically lean toward an ethics of justice in ethical dilemmas, which emphasizes rules and abstract principles, while women tend to focus on an ethics of care, prioritizing relationships and caring for others.
Step-by-step explanation:
In ethical dilemmas, men tend to lean toward a justice-oriented approach which values autonomy, justice, and the application of abstract principles. This perspective stands in contrast to the approach often taken by women, which is characterized by a care-oriented approach that values relationships, and a sense of responsibility, emphasizing the importance of caring for others.
Carol Gilligan's research in care ethics identified these differing tendencies between men and women. She observed that while an ethics of care, generally associated with feminine values, stayed attentive to interpersonal relationships and nurtured traits like sympathy and a genuine caring attitude, traditional ethical models (the ethics of justice), which were considered masculine, focused on authority, competition, and the enforcement of rules. According to Gilligan, these gender-based ethical approaches are not inherently better or worse but fundamentally different in their conceptualization and application of moral principles.
Furthermore, while feminists have criticized the ethics of justice for its impersonality and association with masculine traits like reason and control, they have championed the ethics of care as a more humane and emotionally intelligent ethical paradigm. Nonetheless, in societal and organizational structures often driven by masculine norms, the feminine perspective of care ethics remains undervalued, desiring a societal acknowledgment that appreciates emotional involvement in moral reasoning as opposed to relying solely on intellectual rationale.