Ethics Around the Table: Ann Cudd (University of Kansas), “What is Equality in Higher Education?”

Ann Cudd is the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies as well as the University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas. She is also an affiliated faculty member with the Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Program. Cudd is one of the founders of analytical feminism, was a founding member of the Society for Analytical Feminism, and served as it’s president from 1995-1999.

Cudd’s research has focused in several areas, namely feminist theory, the philosophy of social science, and social and political philosophy. Cudd is one of the founders of analytical feminism, a branch of feminism which seeks to apply the methods of analytical philosophy to feminist issues and topics. She’s authored two books and co-edited three more: Capitalism For and Against: A Feminist Debate (coauthored with Nancy Holmstrom in 2011, Analyzing Oppression in 2006, co-edited Philosophical Perspectives on Democracy in the 21st Century with Sally Scholz in 2014, co-edited Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology in 2006, and co-edited Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism in 2002. She has also written dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals, written several encyclopedia articles, and many book reviews.

Much of Cudd’s work analyzes power relationships through rational choice theory.  Cudd’s analysis of oppression argues that in an objective moral theory is necessary to know whether or not harms experienced by individuals were indeed actual harms that the person shouldn’t have suffered and are thus, in fact, oppressive. Cudd argues that the simple absence of good choices is not a form of coercion – for coercion to occur, objectively better choices must have been available to the subject.

Abstract:

In order to discover how best to approach the goal of equality in higher education, we need to examine what it would mean to say that equality has been achieved. I argue that higher education should serve three goals in a democratic society, which make conflicting apparently equality claims. First it should serve individuals’ goals of achieving flourishing lives. Here the ideal of equality demands that each individual who can achieve and desires a higher education should be able to attend some institution to meet their needs. Second, higher education should serve the social goal to develop competent and creative workers to collectively provide for society’s needs and aspirations. To achieve this, the equality ideal must permit the development of a diverse elite. Third, education should serve the goal of producing democratic equality among persons. Here the equality ideal demands that each person receive enough education to gain the respect and dignity to allow effective political participation. Despite the apparent tension between the demands made by equality on higher education, there is some prospect of realizing them together.

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