Martha Nussbaum Summary

Martha Nussbaum formulated a list of capabilities meant to measure the autonomy and quality of life of a people, in particular women of non-western nations. She gives perspective on how her capabilities approach rejects cultural relativism, and unnecessary ethnocentrism when dealing with non-western cultures, creating feminism more in line with her moral universalist views. What is interesting about Nussbaum’s capabilities approach is its applications in the western world as well. There are many facets of western culture in which women face oppression and injustice, from continued medical discrimination to the continued “hysteria” culture that surrounds women’s emotions, western women have fewer of Nussbaum’s necessary capabilities than one