Servility, Critical Deference and the Deferential Wife

A discussion of Marilyn Friendman's "Moral Integrity and the Deferential Wife', this paper defends Thomas Hill, Jr's account of what is wrong with the role of the deferential wife against Friedman's objections, and examines her alternative account. I argue against the following two assumptions which underpin her objections and her positive account: (1) to defer to "S"'s preferences is to adopt "S"'s preferences. (2) There is moral symmetry between uncritically deferring to someone else's preferences and uncritically accepting and acting upon one's own preferences.