Best Interest example essay topic

"To have a voice is to be human. To have something to say is to be a person. But speaking depends on listening sand being heard; it is an intensely relational act". Gilligan has found that women and men use fundamentally different approaches.

Since men have dominated the discussion of moral theory, women's perspective is often not taken seriously, and is considered to be "less developed" and "sophisticated" There are stages that Gilligan has outlined in the text. These include a selfish stage, a belief in conventional morality, and the post conventional. At an early age females learn to care for others and that selfishness is wrong. We learn that it is also morally wrong to ignore our own interest as it is to ignore the interests and well beings of others. This is shown by the way we connect with others. As women we have a sense of nurturing that is not prevalent in the average male.

Men have taken on the role of the dominator. While women are labeled as caretakers. The one factor that emerges consistently in women is the ability to care. While men, the factor that emerges is more to respect the rights of others and "to protect from interference the rights to life and self-fulfillment". Gilligan also states that "women's insistence on care is at first self-critical rather than self-protective, while men initially conceive obligation to others negatively in terms of noninterference".

This is used largely in the decision making difference between men and women. If there is a problem women are likely to face this problem while considering the best interest of both parties. Now, it is not to say that men are selfish or less caring, they are just more apt to do that which is in their own or best interest. Because of this, men aren't as sensitive to the needs of others, do to the fact that they put feelings aside because they feel it will give fair justice to the cause.

A positive consequence of this is that men can make decisions easier than women. They are able to look at the problem and the problem alone. While women are quicker to think of how this decision will effect those involved and others. This does not handicap our ability to make good decisions, yet it may take us longer to reach this decision. This leads us to the next question, does this impact leadership? In my opinion it does not.

I feel that women are just as capable as men to come to the best conclusion for any given topic. There are many strong women in the work force and recently there have been more in politics. Many men view it as impossible for a woman to hold a political office. They view women as too sensitive of beings to judge or determine something as important as initiating a war or telling an entire country that their lives or the lives of their loved ones are at stake. Again, the average women may have difficulty in do this, but not all women. To a certain extent gender does influence decision -making because of the different approaches men and women take due to the nature of self, but I disagree with the fact that it plays a role in leadership.

A good leader comes from within. It is someone who has the knowledge and the capability to lead. I do not believe that it is determined by anything other than that. "The failure to see the different reality of women's lives and to hear the differences in their voices stems in part form the assumption that there is a single mode of social experience and interpretation.".