Female Students and Reflection in Care Ethics: The Case Study of Guilan University Students

Objective: Care is a multidimensional concept that has been reflected in the process of modernity. The aim of this study was to investigate care ethics among female students of Guilan University.Methods: In this research, a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews and purposive sampling was used. The statistical sample includes 33 students of Guilan University. In total, 11 interviewees were interviewed as a group and 22 interviewees as an individual. The analysis method in this research was thematic analysis.Results:  In data analysis, twelve basic themes, three organizing themes, and one global theme were obtained. The first type was autonomous girls: these types of girls are less inclined to marriage and maternal roles and less interested in circular motherhood and more inclined to linear time and they believed that a circular mother is a boring role that will reduce their agency. The second was heteronomous girls: these types of female students were in maximal motherhood level because they have known a mother with the semiotic such as sacrifice, kindness, self-sacrifice, altruism, etc. Third types of girls were eclectic: this type of female student has both a tendency to linear time (employment and education) and a cyclical time (marriage and motherhood).Conclusion:  Among the existing types, the ideal form was eclectic ethics in which female students have two ethics of heteronomy and autonomy (semiotic and symbolic).