Gender-based violence is a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality, and continues to be one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies. Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of their gender. Both women and men experience gender-based violence but the majority of victims are women and girls.  Gender-based violence and violence against women are terms that are often used interchangeably as it has been widely acknowledged that most gender-based violence is inflicted on women and girls, by men. However, using the ‘gender-based’ aspect is important as it highlights the fact that many forms of violence against women are rooted in power inequalities between women and men. Gender-based violence can include sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in public or in private. It also includes threats of violence, coercion and manipulation. This can take many forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called ‘honour crimes’. The consequences of gender-based violence are devastating and can have life-long repercussions for survivors. It can even lead to death.

Feminist Ethics is an attempt to revise, reformulate, or rethink traditional ethics. Feminists have developed a wide variety of gender-centered approaches to ethics. Some feminist ethicists emphasize issues related to women's traits and behaviors, particularly their care-giving ones. In contrast, other feminist ethicists emphasize the political, legal, economic, and/or ideological causes and effects of women's second-sex status. But they share the same goal: the creation of a gendered ethics that aims to eliminate or at least ameliorate the oppression of any group of people, but most particularly women.

Ethical Issues from Workplace Violence

GBV creates many ethical problems that affect our basic values and human dignity:

1. Disrespecting Basic Human Value: GBV disrespects the basic value and worth of a person. It violates their human rights, especially the right to equal opportunity at work. This raises ethical concerns about treating everyone fairly and protecting them from harm.
2. Right to Safety: Everyone has the right to live without fear of violence. GBV takes away this right and causes physical, emotional, and mental harm.
3. Unequal Power: GBV often happens because of unequal power between genders, especially in societies where men hold more power. This is ethically wrong because it allows gender biases to continue and puts women at risk.
4. Discrimination: GBV reinforces discrimination against women and other marginalized genders, limiting their freedom and opportunities. This creates inequality and raises ethical questions about fairness and justice.
5. Blaming the Victim: Instead of holding the person who committed the violence accountable, victims are often blamed for what happened to them. This is ethically wrong and shows how society fails to support and protect victims.
6. Social Stigma: Victims of GBV often face social isolation, which adds to their trauma and makes them hesitant to seek help. This ethical dilemma shows the conflict between society''s judgment and the victim''s right to justice and recovery.
7. Problems with the Law: Many victims struggle to get justice because of financial problems, social biases, or lack of resources. This raises the ethical question of whether everyone has equal access to justice, regardless of their gender.
8. Re-traumatizing Victims: The legal system can sometimes retraumatize victims through insensitive questioning or delays in justice. This raises concerns about how legal procedures can cause more harm than good.
9. Cost to Society: GBV not only affects individuals but also has wider impacts on communities and the economy. It limits opportunities for women and holds back social progress.
10. Our Responsibility: When society or institutions ignore GBV, they indirectly contribute to the problem. This raises ethical concerns about our responsibility to prevent and address gender-based violence.
11. Duty to Care: Governments and society have a duty to provide support services like shelters, legal aid, and counseling to survivors of GBV. Failure to do so raises ethical questions about our priorities as a society.

Creating a Safe Workplace

To make workplaces safe and respectful, we need to tackle the root causes of GBV and promote equality:

1. Respect and Equality: Workplaces should foster a culture of respect for all individuals, regardless of gender. This can be done through training on gender sensitivity, promoting ethical behaviour, and encouraging employees to speak up against disrespectful behaviour.
2. Changing Stereotypes: We need to challenge the traditional roles and stereotypes that contribute to GBV. This can be done through awareness programs, support systems for victims, and promoting diversity in the workplace.
3. Strong Policies Against GBV: Organizations should have clear policies to prevent and address GBV. This includes easy ways to report violence, holding people accountable, and having leaders who understand gender issues.
4. Stronger Laws: We need strong laws that clearly define and punish all forms of GBV. This includes making it mandatory to report GBV incidents and ensuring victims have access to legal help.

Road ahead

Dealing with GBV requires a combined effort from everyone:

1. Working Together: Governments, organizations, and communities need to work together to address GBV through campaigns, partnerships, and shared initiatives.
2. Empowering Women: We need to empower women and marginalized groups by providing them with leadership training, ensuring equal pay, and creating support programs.
3. Open Communication: We need to encourage open conversations about GBV in workplaces to raise awareness and break the silence around this issue.
4. Better Laws: We need to ensure that people who commit GBV are punished, and victims get justice. This includes laws like the Aparajita bill in West Bengal and a potential central law to protect doctors.
5. Changing Deeply Rooted Ideas: We need to address the deep-rooted cultural and social norms that lead to violence through education and awareness programs.
6. Using Technology: We can use technology to provide safe ways for employees to report harassment and access support.

Feminist Care Ethics 

• Ethics of care is a feminist approach to ethics. It challenges traditional moral theories as male-centric and problematic to the extent they omit or downplay values and virtues usually culturally associated with women or with roles that are often cast as ‘feminine’.
• The best example of this may be seen in how ethics of care differs from two dominant normative moral theories of the 18^th and 19^th century. The first is deontology, best associated with Immanuel Kant’s ethics. The second is consequentialism, best associated with Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarianism and improved upon by John Stuart Mill.
• Each of these moral theories require or encourage the moral agent to be unemotional. Moral decision-making is expected to be rational and logical, with a focus on universal, objective rules. In contrast, ethics of care defends some emotions, such as care or compassion, as moral.
• On this view, there isn’t a dichotomy between reason and the emotions, as some emotions can be reasonable, morally appropriate or even helpful in guiding good decisions or actions. Feminist ethics also recognises that rules must be applied in a context, and real life moral decision-making is influenced by the relationships we have with those around us.
• Instead of asking the moral decision-maker to be unbiased, the caring moral agent will consider that one’s duty may be greater to those they have particular bonds with, or to others who are powerless rather than powerful.
• Proponents of feminist care ethics Carol Gilligan stress that traditional moral theories, principles, practices, and policies are deficient to the degree that they lack, ignore, trivialize, or demean values and virtues culturally associated with women. For ages, ethical thinkers have talked about two great moral imperatives: ‘Justice’ and ‘love’. The concept of love is replaced by the concept of ‘goodness ‘, ‘utility’ etc.  Carol Gilligan’s ethical theory is essentially based on the “communal nature of women”. The theory is titled as “ethics of care” as against typical conventional male oriented “ethics of justice”.
• Traditional proponents of feminist care ethics include 20th century theorists Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings. Gilligan’s influential 1982 book, In a Different Voice, claimed that Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development were biased and male-oriented.

Moral Development

Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development

Jean Piaget used the interview method to find the various stages of moral development of the child. According to him, there are four stages:

• Anomy – Without law (Below 5 years) – At this stage, the behaviour of the child is non-moral or amoral. The regulators of behaviour are pain and pleasure. This is the ‘discipline of natural consequences’ as advocated by Rousseau.
• Heteronomy—Discipline of Authority (5–8 years) – It may be called the discipline of artificial consequences imposed by adults. Moral development at this stage is controlled by external authority. Rewards and punishments regulate moral development.
• Heteronomy—Reciprocity (9–13 years) – There is the morality of cooperation with peers or This stage is regulated by reciprocity which implies, ‘we should not do to others what will be offensive to us.’ Conformity with the group becomes imperative.
• Autonomy—Adolescence (13–18 years) – Piaget termed this as equity stage. The individual at this stage is fully responsible for his behaviour.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Moral development in human being occurs over age and experience. Kohlberg suggested there are three levels of moral development – pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional, each divided into two stages, which is as follows;

•  Pre-Conventional Level
• Punishment and Obedience Orientation – The moral development is determined by the physical consequences of an action whether it is good or bad. Avoiding punishment and bowing to superior authority are valued positively.
• Instrumental Relativist Orientation – Right action consists of behaviour that satisfies child’s own needs. Human relations are considered in reciprocity.
• Conventional Level
• Interpersonal Concordance – Herein, the child begins to like the goodwill of others and tries to please others to obtain their approval in the form of ‘good boy’.
• Orientation towards Authority – Focus is on authority or rules. One shows respect for authority.
• Post-Conventional Level
• Social Contract Orientation – Right behaviour is defined according to the standards agreed upon by the group or society.
• Universal Ethical Principle Orientation – Herein, individual keeps in mind not only the norms of society but also the universal moral principles.

Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Moral Development

Carol Gilligan in her ground-breaking work In a Different Voice, made the generalization of Kohlberg’s theory on morality and highlighted the feminist critique to the theory. Gilligan deemed the research of Kohlberg as biased due to inclusion of only male subjects to conclude his findings.

Women’s development as suggested by Gilligan is more about relationships and caring as opposed to compliance to rules and rights. Gilligan’s theory on moral development consists of three stages that begin from selfish to conventional morality and then post conventional morality which is as follows;

• Pre Conventional – In this stage, one is only thinking about self that springs from the survival instinct. This is the beginning stage of individual development which is experienced by us all during our childhood. During this phase the attitude of the person is thought upon as selfish, the person views their connection with self and not with others.
• Conventional – During this stage care for others is shown by the individual. This is depicted in the roles played by Mother and Wife. Often during this stage the individual ignores the needs of self. It is during this phase that the tension between caring for others versus self-care is experienced.
• Post Conventional – The principle of care is accepted in this stage – both care for self as well as for others.

 Kohlberg Theory vs. Gilligan’s Theory

Heinz’s dilemma is used to differentiate these two theories. Heinz being poor could not buy the costly medicine for his sick wife. Initially he begged the Pharmacist to sell at half the price or allow him to pay for it later but Pharmacist refused his prayer. Finally he forcibly entered the Pharmacy and stole the drug.

According to Kohlberg study, men observed that the theft was morally ‘wrong’ at the conventional level, because the property right was violated. But men at the post-conventional level, concluded that the theft was ‘right’, as the life of the human being was in danger. But women observed that Heinz was wrong. They observed that instead of stealing he could have tried other solutions (threatening or payment in instalments) to convince the Pharmacist.