The Gift of a Warmer Climate: Education for Courage

The aim of this essay is to give hope to those who are in the middle of struggles relating to personal experiences associated with sexual/gendered harassment. In it, Kanako W. Ide inquires into the moral conditions around speaking out publicly about such incidents through critical analysis of the social norms of gender and economy. Jane Roland Martin's gender‐sensitive theory supports a discussion of how contemporary discourses against sexual/gendered harassment are embedded in the norms of a gender‐blind market economy. In seeking an alternative, gender‐sensitive discussion, the gift paradigm is addressed and critically examined. Ide applies the conceptual distinction between “labor” and “work” that informs gift theory to argue for the invisible spirit of the gift as an essence of feminine moral values. The Buddhist idea of altruism as asceticism is offered as a means of developing the concept of “labor” as a gift, and also as a way to conclude the essay by explaining negative incidents in an affirmative gift theory.