THEThe starting point is a given. Women are more supportive. The report says so We donate, created by the Italian Institute of Donation (52% of individuals who donate are women). And the data on those who work in the Third Sector (over 75% of those involved in solidarity associations are women) and make solidarity purchases. This is confirmed by an investigation promoted by Solidarity Testament Committee among the 28 member organizations: 69.2% of those who make a bequest are women. But if the data is irrefutable, the reasons behind this record are not obvious. We talked about it with Maura Gangitano, philosopher and founder of the project Tlon.
Is solidarity a woman? A philosophical explanation
Women appear more inclined to donate: energy, time and even money. Parts of oneself, to improve collective well-being. And this «naturally not for biological but cultural reasons: we are historically used to facing a series of difficulties, we have experienced them, and we know the value of cooperation to resolve complicated moments”, explains Gancitano.
The “principle of responsibility”
Not only that: «Women are the largest consumers of cultural products, starting with books. And this increases theirs adherence to what Hans Jonas defined as the principle of responsibility. They choose un act responsiblywhich allows us to rediscover the meaning of the limit”, and of deliver to who will come after a better world or at least livable.
Also the propensity for sustainable behavior and so-called eco-anxiety are more feminine than masculine. In short, there is an “eco gender gap”. «Due to our social responsibility, it is difficult for us to be skeptical or indifferent to data regarding the future of the world», continues Gancitano. «Whereas it canUnfortunately, the most skeptical are mennot young people but adults, which could change things the mostbecause they are located in key positions in the system.”
Solidarity as a habit of care and emotions
Not only that, the dimension of care to which we have been relegated for so much of history has led us to «deal with emotions and feelings, with suffering and fear, and not feel them as demeaning. On the contrary, man has always been required to demonstrate that he knows how to accumulate, control and capitalize”, continues Gangitano. And he still struggles to admit that he is fragile and vulnerable.
Alternatives to “inheritance from father to son”
If philanthropy is striking, then it can be linked to the sense of one’s identity: it can become an attribute of the public image, even of a man. “Otherwise, the patriarch allocates the money to his offspring, without doubt». The blood bond applies, the inheritance passes from one generation to another.
The condition of interdependence (Judith Butler)
While «it belongs to the feminine awareness of what the American philosopher Judith Butler (What a world this isNew times) calls the interdependence condition», continues Gancitano. That is, the fact that our existence is linked to that of others and to the environment around us. The individual is not closed in on himself, devoted to personal interest. We open ourselves to the idea of being able to contribute to the collective well-being, even of those who will come after us, and whom we will never know.
Therefore, not only by showing solidarity today, but also by leaving a sum, even a small one, to whoever will come tomorrow, and who is neither our son nor our grandson. As evidenced by the data on solidarity bequests, of a female nature. «They are very small gestures without a name or surname that many women make, without expecting applause or recognition», continues Gancitano.
That solidarity is female is also clear when looking at the history of Western thought. «Reflection on the care and maintenance of the little things of the world, as James Hillman calls it, has entered philosophical reflection only since women speak and write. Previously these were issues considered irrelevant and of little importancecompared to high and classical themes”.
Women and solidarity, reading suggestions
Consistently, Gancitano finally suggests some good reads from which to start to delve deeper into these themes
The Care posterAllegre Editionby the English collective Care Collective. Which invites us to take advantage of the good practices of the feminist and environmentalist movements to try to think of a real “state of care”: a new idea of democracy oriented towards collective needs.
Care becomes collective, beyond the traditional family
After workby Helen Hester, professor of Gender, Technology and Cultural Politics at the University of West London, written with his partner Nick Srnicek, Edizioni Tlon. In which the author suggests some concrete possibilities, principles, to minimize the work necessary to expand freedom. First of all the “collective care”, understood as emancipation and expansion of care relationships beyond family which is «a bastion of patriarchal power. It is also a powerful intergenerational mechanism for the concentration of wealth and the perpetuation of related inequalities” (as stated above, with the passage of inheritance from one generation to another).
Silvia Federici and Rosi Braidotti, two thinkers to be rediscovered
Among historical thinkers, they must be rediscovered Silvia Federici (Parma, 20 April 1942), sociologist, philosopher and activist who in the Seventies was among the protagonists of the international movement for Wages for Domestic Work (here she is interviewed about the future of work by the New York Times).
As well as Rosi Braidottifounder of the Netherland Research School of Women’s Studies, for the theory of the nomadic subject, and feminist, which changes and rejects every univocal and simplistic definition, first and foremost that of non-masculine. Since the 80s she has moved against it fixity of granite identitieswhich is functional «to a system of power that privileges males, whites, heterosexuals, legal citizens, the rich, the able», convinced that critical thinking combined with active commitment can change the world (here his books, published by Valsecchi).
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