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Fiduciary - Asymmetrical Power, Asymmetrical Care

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  • Helen Mussell

Abstract

The legal concept of fiduciary plays a fundamental role in all financial and business organisations. It acts as a moral safeguard of the relationship between trustee and beneficiary, ensuring that the beneficiaries’ best interests are met. It is often referred to as a duty of care. Originally formulated within familial law to protect property put into Trust, beneficiaries were women and children, allocated passive and subordinated roles. This paper investigates two aspects of the asymmetrical power relations central to the fiduciary. Firstly it reveals the gendered presuppositions regarding male and female agential capabilities on which the fiduciary is premised, drawing out the origins of the authority differential in the trustee-beneficiary relationship. Secondly, the paper engages with the ethical nature of the fiduciary relationship, arguing that Care Ethics offers a robust framework for explicating the history of the relationship, alongside delivering a morally-enhanced and future-fit fiduciary free of damaging gendered stereotypes.

Suggested Citation

  • Helen Mussell, 2019. "Fiduciary - Asymmetrical Power, Asymmetrical Care," Working Papers wp511, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp511
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    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/cbrwp511/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vinca Bigo, 2010. "The care paradox: devaluing and idealising care, the mother, and mother nature," International Journal of Green Economics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(2), pages 117-133.
    2. Benjamin J. Richardson, 2011. "From fiduciary duties to fiduciary relationships for socially responsible investing: responding to the will of beneficiaries," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 5-19, February.
    3. Helen Mussell, 2018. "Who Dares to Care? (In the World of Finance)," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 113-135, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiduciary; economic agency; care ethics; gender relations; gender politics; trustee; beneficiary; tort law; essentialism; history of finance; share-holder activism; history of economic thought; feminist economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General
    • B54 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Feminist Economics
    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law
    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions

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