The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics

Volume 18, 1998

Business and "Family Values"

Feminist theologians and ethicists reject the normative nature of traditional gender roles as unjust, and as part of a sinful social order. In its place, they advocate mutuality and alternative anthropologies. Although I find much of this work compelling, I question its rejection of capitalism as endemic of the old sexual-political order. Capitalism is not monolithic, nor is it necessarily hostile to women. I advocate a stakeholder model of capitalism, which can more readily address the feminist critique. Such a model would reject both the rigid traditional family roles that denigrate women, and the radical individualism that undermines family.