Work · Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.)
In a Different Voice
Interviews, among them with women deciding about abortion, reveal a moral reasoning of care and responsibility that the stage models of development ranked as immature.
Introduction
Carol Gilligan, a psychologist at Harvard who had worked with Lawrence Kohlberg, published In a Different Voice in 1982. Kohlberg’s six-stage theory of moral development, first based on interviews with boys, ranked reasoning from abstract principles of justice highest, and women often scored lower on it. Gilligan argues that this reveals a bias in the theory rather than a deficit in women. Drawing on three interview studies, she describes a voice that frames moral problems as conflicts of responsibility within relationships. Her best-known example contrasts Jake and Amy, two eleven-year-olds discussing whether Heinz should steal a drug to save his wife. Critics questioned the empirical basis and whether this voice is specifically female.
Connections
Taken up in
- Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education1984 · Nel Noddings
- The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global2006 · Virginia Held
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