Five Questions about Women and Well-Being

Samantha Brennan (University of Guelph)

Each year, the Rotman Institute of Philosophy and the Department of Philosophy at Western University organize a public lecture series, co-sponsored with the London Public Library. The theme for this year’s lecture series is happiness and well-being. The four speakers taking part in this year’s series have expertise in a range of fields–ethics, feminist philosophy, philosophy of science, and sociology–and will address the theme from unique perspectives. All lectures will be held in the Stevenson & Hunt Room at Central Library, on Thursday evenings, from 7 – 8:30 pm, on the dates listed below. Attendance will be free and open to the general public.

This talk takes up five questions about women and well-being: Are women’s lives sufficiently different than men’s as to merit a separate account of well-being? What might a feminist theory of well-being look like?  In general, do women lead better or worse lives than men? If women are happy with their lives, in unjust circumstances, does that count against subjective theories of well-being? How does equality relate to well-being in the context of the pay gap and the play gap?

SPEAKER PROFILE

Samantha Brennan is Dean of the College of Arts at the University of Guelph, a member of the graduate faculty in Philosophy at Western University and at the University of Guelph. She is also a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. Brennan’s main research interests lie in the area of contemporary normative ethics, applied ethics, and feminist philosophy.