The introduction of “Feminist Ethics” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy cites feminist philosopher Alison Jaggar’s five ways that traditional or male-oriented ethics fails to represent the thinking and experiences of women:

It is not as attentive to women’s issues as it is to men’s issues. It trivializes the private sphere (housekeeping, care-taking, etc.). It implies women are not as morally complex as men. It overrates male traits (autonomy, intellect, hierarchy) and underrates female traits (community, body, absence of hierarchy). It emphasizes male reasoning (rules, universality, impartiality) over female reasoning (relationships, particularity, partiality).

It would be a mistake to disagree with the heart of Jaggar’s critique – namely that Western Civilization’s development has often shown a difference between men and women in the extreme. Furthermore, the differences exist in the most abstract way when talking about masculine versus feminine in the trajectory of our history. However, this same trajectory has offered both men and women entry and participation into the other’s gender context.

The danger here is that Jaggar sets up a false dichotomy that only works on one side or the other. This either/or fallacy sets up two nonintegrated opposing types (male and female) when in fact many men share traits that Jaggar attributes to women and many women share traits that Jaggar attributes to men. In the most abstract sense, Jaggar sketches masculinity and femininity as black and white. But real life tells us differently.

Worse, Jaggar’s false dichotomy invites good/evil debates by social justice warriors (SJWs). SJWs find traction using this right/wrong reasoning. Yet, ironically, this a simplistically undeveloped form of Jaggar’s characterization of masculine reasoning, so that Jaggar’s work has the unintended consequence of doing what it sets out not to do – mimic masculinity. But in mimicking, it undermines itself by adopting categorical thinking – which in this case invites schizophrenic dualism.