Carol Gilligan

American Feminist, Ethicist, & Psychologist

Who is Carol Gilligan?

Born in New York November 28th 1936 PhD- Harvard University 1964, AM- Radcliff College 1961, AB-Swarthmore College 1958
Responses to Temptation: An Analysis Of Motives

Who is Carol Gilligan?

In 1982 Carol Gilligan published her book In a Different Voice and startled a country trying to understand male and female differences. The book outlined her findings on female moral development and decision making.

She worked along with Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg, both had major influences on her career

Theories
Based on Moral and Ethical development Stemmed from the biasness of Kohlbergs theory Kohlbergs theory of moral development involved the study of privileged white men only: it didnt represent women and other cultures Instead of emphasizing individualism, Gilligans theory focuses on moral development and an ethic of care Although this moral problem solving approach favors females over males, a study proved that both males and females care and reason when in a dilemma

Pre-Conventional

Selfish

Conventional

Social or conventional morality

Post-Conventional

Principled Morality

Theories
Unlike Kohlberg whose studies included males focused on justice, Gilligan found that females focused on compassion, and awareness of relationships emphasizing a responsibility toward others. Gilligan found that men tend to organized social relationships in a hierarchical order, and subscribe to a morality of rights, while females value interpersonal connectedness, care, sensitivity, and responsibility.

Theories
She says that men think in terms of rules and justice and women are more inclined to think in terms of caring and relationships. She wanted society to value both equally

Opposing Views
The male view of individual rights and rules was considered a higher stage than women's point of view of development in terms of its caring effect on human relationships. Women were taught to care for other people and expect others to care for them.

Many feminists insisted that there are no differences between males and females.

Opposing Views
Christina Hoff Sommers, PhD criticized She feels strongly that that Gilligan has failed to produce the data for her promoting an anti-male research. agenda hurts both males and She condemns the fact that Gilligan used anecdotal females. evidence, that researchers have not been able to duplicate her work, and that the samples used were too small. She thinks the field of gender studies needs to be put to the test of people from fields such as neuroscience or evolutionary psychology rather than from the area of education.

Opposing Views
Sommers does not find it helpful for girls and women to be told that they are diminished or voiceless.

In respond Gilligan says that her findings have been published in leading journals and that Sommers points are not accurate.

Gilligans Contributions
Gilligan has made two major contributions to the field of educational psychology First is her discovery of a moral reasoning based on the ethics of care, which complements Kohlberg's morality based on the ethics of justice. Her second contribution is identifying the selfsilencing of a young person's authentic voice in surrender to the expectations of society.

Gilligan in the classroom

Gilligans theory can easily be applied to the classroom. The teacher should teach children to care by caring for their students. It teaches teachers to treat boys and girls equally. It helps teachers to understand that girls and boys have different stages of moral development

Gilligan in the classroom

Here are some techniques and guidelines to assist with putting Gilligans moral development theory to practice in the classroom: Safe learning environment Participatory decision-making Incorporate students learning styles Cooperative Learning Moral reflection and reasoning Encourage students to rely on their own moral compass