“We behave in ways detrimental to ourselves and others because we think it an unpardonable mistake not to do as our neighbours do.” — Mary Astell (1697)

Definition

This chapter views an ethical approach to leadership as one concerned largely with the self and its care as an act of resistance. Our rendering of the ethic of self-care draws upon the foundational works of Mary Astell’s (1666–1731) gendering of the ethic of the self as a feminist project; Michel Foucault’s (1926–1984) ethic of self-care, which is rooted in concepts of intellectual independence and free speech; along with more modern interpretations influenced by Black feminism, eco-feminism, and critiques of wellness from notable scholars like Sara Ahmed and Audre Lorde.

Mary Astell

The ethic of self-care refers to a philosophical and moral framework that emphasizes the importance of individuals attending to their own emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being (Curry & Epley, 2021). Mary Astell (1697) advocated for practices of the self, which involved bodily practices of withdrawal and meditation. According to Astell, self-care required “disengagement from the senses, the passions, and the love (or more accurately, the desire) of material things” (Broad, 2015, p. 35). For Astell, an ethical person was one who regulated their passions and harnessed rather than succumbed to their natural desires. Thus, to be ethical consisted of mastering one’s passions and mind (Webb, 2021).

The ethic of self-care is also an act of resistance. Astell (2002) heavily critiqued the notion of “customs,” or forces of social habit. She explained:

We behave in ways detrimental to ourselves and others because we think it an unpardonable mistake not to do as our neighbours do, and part with our Peace and Pleasure as well as our Innocence and Virtue, merely in compliance with unreasonable Fashion… Custom, that merciless torrent, [accounts for] all that Sin and Folly in the World (pp. 67–68).

Astell argued that custom has taught women to devalue themselves and place their worth in bodily appearance (Webb, 2021); thus, an ethic of self-care, from a feminist perspective, aims to disrupt expectations imposed upon women in leadership and to find ways for women to break free “of the tyrannous grip of sexist custom” (p. 29).

Michel Foucault

Foucault’s perspective on the ethic of self-care is deeply intertwined with his broader philosophical views on power, knowledge, and the self. He argued that modern societies have developed a form of power that operates through the regulation and normalization of individuals’ behaviours and identities. In this context, self-care becomes a crucial practice for individuals to resist and navigate these mechanisms of power. Foucault (1997) urged us to challenge how history and ‘truth’ are constituted and presented to us; he insisted on the ethical value of curiosity: “Curiosity marks a readiness to find what surrounds us strange and odd; a certain determination to throw off familiar ways of thought and to look at the same things in a different way” (p. 325).

From a Foucauldian perspective, an ethical leader is thus one who challenges the status quo and unceasingly engages in a continuous critical practice of the self. To follow an ethic of self-care requires ongoing critical reflection on how one is governed by external forces, including how they may be influenced by societal expectations and institutional norms. Engaging in this kind of cerebral exercise can be a way to cultivate a sense of autonomy and self-empowerment, as it allows individuals to develop their own ways of thinking and being in the world.

Ethic of Self

Astell and Foucault emphasized the relationship between the self and others, noting the role of friendship as fundamental to an ethic of the self (Broad, 2015; Webb, 2021). Writing, journalling, or seeking guidance from a friend can assist in developing the self.

It is important to note that the ethic of self-care is focused on developing oneself as more morally and ethically enlightened; it is not about dictating the morality of others. Rather, it is a deeply personal exercise. Therefore, ethical educational leaders should not impose their beliefs upon others; instead, they should encourage their colleagues to engage in similar processes of self-creation and critical self-analysis, promote intellectual independence, and dismantle structures that stand in stark contrast to this goal.

Leadership

The ethic of self-care is not typically associated with a specific leadership style, as it is primarily focused on critiquing power structures and institutions through self-critique rather than prescribing specific leadership approaches. However, the concepts can be applied to leadership in interesting ways, such as exploring the relationship between intellectual independence, free speech, and anti-authoritarian leadership. The summary table below highlights key aspects of this ethic including the primary objective and core principles, and benefits of adopting this frame of reference for decision-making.

Historical Origins

Socrates (469–399 BCE) and ancient ethicists understood that caring for oneself was to exhibit an attitude not only toward oneself but also toward others and the world, attending to one’s own thoughts and attitudes in self-reflection and meditation and engaging in ascetic practices aimed at realizing an ideal state of being. In Ancient Greece, Socrates went about Athens questioning its citizens about their unexamined way of life; he spent his time prodding people into thinking (Ozmon & Craver, 1990). According to Socrates, philosophy is a practice essential to one’s ethical development, for it is a spiritual commitment to the truth that requires self-disciplined attention to the character of one’s thinking. Ancient Greeks also emphasized exercise, diet, and moderation in life as important dimensions of self-care.

The works of Mary Astell and other 17th century moral philosophers have been compared to “self-help manuals buttressed with psychology, speculative law, and religion” (Garrett, 2013, p. 30). These early texts counselled readers by offering techniques for cultivating the self and promoting happiness. While Astell’s writings were concerned with intellectual growth, her primary audience for the ethic of self-care was women. She arrived at a time when female virtue was associated with beauty. Astell (2002) was troubled by this gendering of women and advocated for women to turn their attention to their “own minds” (p. 52) and “souls” (p. 54) to increase their role in society.

Critiques

While attention to the development of the self as an ethical practice is deeply rooted in ancient traditions, it has been criticized as “something somewhat suspect… gladly denounced as being a kind of self-love, a kind of egoism or individual interest in contradiction to the care one must show others or to the necessary sacrifice of the self” (Fornet-Betancourt et al., 1987, p. 115-116). This rejection of self-care has been connected to the rise of Christianity, which emphasized salvation as the renunciation of the self. The rejection of self-care as an ethical practice has been further exacerbated by feminist ethics of care which, it has been argued, failed to theorize self-care and the affective/emotional labour of care work (Lloro-Bidart & Semenko, 2017).

Similarly, Foucault’s work has been criticized for failing to recognize how caring work “can overburden the truth-sayer with negative emotions… emotions that might be exacerbated if the educator also engages in activism” (p. 21). Zuckerwise (2024) further criticized Foucault for taking for granted one’s freedom; she challenged: “Foucauldian self-care, not unlike the Greco-Roman context that so inspired it, is thus the province of those subjects whose liberation is not in question: again, namely white men” (p. 587).

Modern Day Self-Care

In recent years, the concept of self-care has been popularized and is often associated with ideas of how people should look after themselves, such as taking a hot bath, going for a walk, doing yoga, or getting a massage. Encouragement to engage in self-care abounds and is largely targeted at women.

Webb (2021) argued that self-care “has been diluted and commodified, untethered from the political” (p. 101). As Orgad and Gill (2022) highlighted, the relationship between self-care and ‘white wellness’ is privileged in that the ability to care for oneself and one’s access to self-care resources (e.g., health insurance and benefits, fashion, lifestyle indulgences, and vacations) continues to be radically unequal. Audre Lorde attempted to call attention to this violent and oppressive culture — one that dictated how women should behave — by insisting that she and other marginalized women mattered and that they were worthy of care (Kisner, 2017).

Situated Within Educational Leadership Theory and Practice

For Foucault (1997), self-care involves not just physical health but also the cultivation of the self in ways that resist authoritarian forms of leadership. This includes practices of self-examination, reflection, and transformation aimed at challenging established modes of thought and behaviour. In essence, self-care becomes a form of resistance and a means of creating new forms of subjectivity that are not wholly determined by external powers.

Foucault (2002) argued that ethics should not be understood as a set of universal moral principles but rather as practices through which individuals shape their own ethical selves, which involves a continual process of self-examination and transformation, guided by the goal of achieving greater freedom and autonomy. Not surprisingly, Foucault’s work has been linked to continuing education and lifelong learning as an ethic of self-care (Rosetto & Doro, 2021).

In the context of higher education leadership, one can draw parallels between Foucault’s ethic of self-care and concepts of free inquiry, intellectual independence, and academic freedom. In Technologies of the Self, Foucault (1982) stated: “To put one’s freedom to use and thereby experience it as something other than a static condition: ‘what is ethics if not the practice of freedom?’” (p. 28). Foucault frequently cited educational institutions as sites where normalization occurs, thus calling attention to the need for educational leaders to critically examine institutional structures that inhibit resistance to these norms.

Truth in Academia

Mourad (2017) drew attention to the challenges that exist in Western higher education institutions in his essay on Social Control and Free Inquiry. Specifically, he highlighted the limitations of criteria used to validate what is accepted as truth in academia. For example, he noted the dominant preference for the scientific method and quantitative methods, works published in English, reductionistic approaches to knowledge-creation, and “highly localized or specialized topics that present a precise approximation of reality” (p. 332). Calls for decolonizing research methodologies have been occurring for decades (Smith, 2023), yet systems are slow to change.

Much like the ethics of critique and discomfort, educational leaders who follow an ethic of self-care are motivated to attend to their relationship with the truth. Foucault (1990b) perceived ‘coming to know’ as a philosophical activity fundamentally oriented to the care of the self, for truth, he believed, is pursued in philosophy for its own good and the sake of ethical development. It would, therefore, be unethical to blindly follow the rules.

However, leaders must avoid imposing their beliefs on others; instead, they should encourage their colleagues to engage in similar processes of free inquiry, draw their own conclusions, and uphold the principles of academic freedom. Foucault (1985) was particularly distressed by external forces that “try, from the outside, to dictate to others, to tell them where their truth is and how to find it, or when it works up a case against them in the language of naive positivity” (p. 9). Thus, ethical leadership, from this perspective, is not about telling others what to think but rather creating an environment that promotes freedom of thought.

Benefits of Ethic

Foucault described the ethic of self-care as an ‘aesthetic of existence,’ or living one’s own life as a work of art — an ongoing process of self-creation and making oneself and one’s life beautiful (Webb, 2021). This process is linked to liberation and resistance against domination and oppressive power structures. By caring for oneself, Foucault argued, individuals can resist the normalization of behaviours and ideas imposed by societal norms.

Astell’s insights into the ethic of self-care are particularly salient today, with society’s obsession with one’s physical appearance, clothes, and beauty. Social media and entertainment have long defined women according to their appearance. However, from Astell’s perspective, beauty as a defining feature of women’s virtue will never be empowering, regardless of whether women feel good doing so (Webb, 2021). This philosophical viewpoint gives leaders tools to begin to unpack misogynistic beliefs and practices.

Building on Astell, Foucault, Lorde, and Ahmed’s interpretations of self-care, leaders can work to create communities and ethical friendships to collectively enact resistance and transformation.

Drawbacks of Ethic

Throughout this chapter, numerous critiques of Ancient Greek and Foucauldian interpretations of the ethic of self-care were identified. Notably, they ignore the risks that women, particularly racialized women, Indigenous, and queer scholars face in their pursuit of free inquiry and practice of decolonial pedagogies and research methodologies. Constantly fighting systems that were designed to oppress can lead to compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, loneliness, and burnout (Bamonti et al., 2014; Beddoe, 2013; Lewis & King, 2019).

Lorde (1988) critiqued Foucault’s concept of self-care, particularly in the context of marginalized individuals. While Foucault advocated for self-care as a form of resistance against oppressive power structures, Lorde argued that for marginalized groups, self-care alone is not enough. She believed that true liberation and empowerment required collective action and solidarity. She emphasized the importance of self-care as a political act, but she also stressed the need for community support and systemic change. She believed that individuals should not be solely responsible for their well-being in the face of societal injustices. Instead, she called for a more holistic approach that included both self-care and collective action to challenge and change oppressive systems.

Similarly, Sara Ahmed who, in 2014, wrote a blog post titled Self-care as Warfare argued that:

In directing our care towards ourselves we are redirecting care away from its proper objects… And that is why in queer, feminist and anti-racist work self-care is about the creation of community, fragile communities, assembled out of the experiences of being shattered. We reassemble ourselves through the ordinary, everyday and often painstaking work of looking after ourselves; looking after each other. This is why when we have to insist, I matter, we matter, we are transforming what matters. (para. 39)

Ahmed (2014) challenged neoliberal forms of self-care that hold individuals personally responsible for their emotional well-being; without institutional protections, she argued, the act of self-care can become political warfare, with women topping the list of casualties. From this perspective, the ethic of self-care, to be fully realized, is a relational process, requiring us to not only look after ourselves but to look after each other.

Lloro-Bidart and Semenko (2017) have taken this one step further by highlighting the need to examine “how the self is constituted not only through relations with other humans, but living others and the material world” (p. 21). They called for broader conceptions of relationality that consider all living things, including nature. Additionally, they argued that an eco-feminist ethic of self-care requires that educational institutions provide “time and space for the expression of emotions as part of truth-telling” (p. 21).

Moreover, when tied to notions of wellness and well-being popularized and commodified in Western society, the ethic of self-care can reinforce existing forms of power and social stratification, as individuals with more privilege find it easier to prioritize well-being (e.g., attending a yoga class, getting a massage, and going on vacation) over those who are less advantaged. Access to resources and support for self-care are unevenly distributed, exacerbating existing disparities and inequalities, which can result in further marginalization and discrimination.

Recommended Readings

• “The Ethics of the Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom” by Michel Foucault (1997) in Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (edited by Paul Rabinow), The New Press
• “Toward a Feminist Ethic of Self-Care for Environmental Educators” by Teresa Lloro-Bidart and Keri Semenko (2017), The Journal of Environmental Education
• ““I Am Writing You in Reference to Myself”: White Wellness, Black Feminism, and the Politics of Self-Care” by Lena Zuckerwise (2024), Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

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