Justice in the Family: A Defence of Feminist Contractarianism

ABSTRACT Jean Hampton argues that we can detect exploitation in personal relationships by thinking about what we would agree to were we to set aside the emotional benefits we receive from those relationships. Hampton calls her account “feminist contractarianism,” but it has recently been critiqued as decidedly un‐feminist, on the grounds that it is hostile to women's interests and women's values. Furthermore, Hampton's requirement that we imaginatively distance ourselves from our emotional connections to our loved ones — the key element in her contractarian test — is simply ad hoc. In this essay, I will evaluate these objections and offer a new justification for Hampton's test. I conclude that feminist contractarianism is not only a useful tool for detecting exploitation in the family, it is also deserving of its feminist label.     

ROLE-TAKING AND REFERENTIAL COMMUNICATION ABILITIES IN FIRST- AND THIRD-GRADE CHILDREN1

This study investigated role-taking and referential communication abilities in children. The effects of age, sex, and IQ on both abilities were tested, and the effect of age of receiver on referential communication ability was also examined. Multiple regression analyses were utilized to determine how well the independent variables predict the measures of role-taking and referential communication. Finally, the relationship between role-taking and referential communication was assessed. The participants were 32 first-graders and 32 third-graders. At each grade level, there were equal numbers of boys and girls. Age was found to affect performance on role-taking and communication tasks. Both sex of the child and IQ were found to affect referential communication performance. The relationship between role-taking and referential communication abilities was low. Interpretation of significant results is given, and testing procedures are discussed.