Gilligan’s In a Different Voice

Gilligan’s In a Different Voice HMXP 102 Dr. Fike

Vocabulary • contrapuntal (par. 1) • superego (par. 15) • individuation (par. 19) • crucible (par. 20) • repression (par. 27) • narcissism (par. 27) • abeyance (par. 29) • inhere (par. 52) • autonomy (par. 57)

Term from Credo Reference • Individuation: “In psychoanalytic theory, the process of becoming an individual who is aware of his or her individuality” (my emphasis). • Individuation: “Margaret Mahler's term for a child's awareness of its discrete identity, its individuality, its separateness from the mother. In Mahler's theory, this awareness develops following the symbiotic stage, during which the mutually reinforcing relationship between mother and child is dominant” (my emphasis). • Gilligan uses differentiation and individuation synonymously. For example, see par. 17, right bottom.

Carol Gilligan • http://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/GNED%20102/GNED%20102%20Gilligan%20bio.htm

Thesis • What is Gilligan’s thesis statement? See the first page.

Thesis • Par. 2: “Instead, the failure of women to fit existing models of human growth may point to a problem in the representation, a limitation in the conception of human condition, an omission of certain truths about life.”

What Gilligan Criticizes • What is Gilligan criticizing? See par. 33, bottom of left column to top of right column.

What Gilligan Criticizes • Par. 33: “…psychologists ‘have tended to regard male behavior as the ‘norm’ and female behavior as some kind of deviation from that norm.’”

Gilligan’s Purpose • What does Gilligan want to do about the problem? See par. 8, bottom right and over to the next page.

Her Purpose • Pages 95-96: “In presenting excerpts from this work, I report research in progress whoseaim is to provide, in the field of human development, a clearer representation of women’s development which will enable psychologists and others to follow its course and understand some of the apparent puzzles it presents, especially those that pertain to women’s identity formation and their moral development in adolescence and adulthood. For women, I hope this work will offer a representation of their thought that enables them to see better its integrity and validity, to recognize the experiences their thinking refracts, and to understand the line of its development. My goal is to expand the understanding of human development by using the group left out in the construction of theory to call attention to what is missing in its account” (my emphasis).

Feminism • What is your definition of feminism? Write down a one-sentence definition?

Feminism • http://0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winthrop.edu/results.jsp?meta_long=prefer&new_meta=1&term=feminism • Note: Winthrop prefers that you use Credo Reference, not Wikipedia.

Next Question • Is Gilligan a feminist? • If so, how and why?

Group Activity: Discussion of Key Passages • Count off by SEVEN. • Find people who have the same number and start your discussion with the corresponding question on the next slide. Work down. • Ones should meet by the door; other groups sit in clockwise fashion.

Group Activity: Discussion of Key Passages • Par. 15 re. Freud, superego, etc. How is Freud the villain of this text? (See slides below.) • Pars. 16-17 re. Freud's differences from Chodorow. How does Chodorow try to correct Freud? • Par. 19 re. relationships. (See slide below.) • Par. 29, last two sentences; and par. 30, first sentence ("Yet despite..."): re. the difference between males and females. (See slide below.) • Par. 31: Male is to "the world" as female is to "a relationship of intimacy." Discuss. • Father is to giant as mother is to _______________. (For the word "giant," see pars. 9, 10, and 31.) How would Gilligan fill in the blank? How would YOU? • Par. 38: Regarding games, boys are to rules as girls are to relationships.

Question 1 • Par. 15 re. Freud, superego, etc. How is Freud the villain of this text? (See slides below.)

Superego Ego Id Oedipus Complex 1. Freud

Superego = the morality principle Ego = the reality principle Id = the pleasure principle Reason Will Passion/desire 1. Freud

Freud • Oedipus Complex: • http://0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winthrop.edu/results.jsp?meta_long=prefer&new_meta=1&term=oedipus+complex • Basically, it is a young boy’s desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother.

The Problem • Par. 19: “Women’s failure to separate then becomes by definition a failure to develop.” • In other words, Freud and other psychologists have said that the difference between males and females is qualitative, that females are inferior to males. The male way is the standard; deviation from it signals inferiority.

2. Freud and Chodorow • Pars. 16-17 re. Freud's differences from Chodorow: How does Chodorow try to correct Freud?

Questions 3 and 4 • Par. 19 re. relationships. (See slide below.) • Par. 29, last two sentences; and par. 30, first sentence ("Yet despite..."): re. the difference between males and females. (See slide below.)

Boys: “Masculinity is defined through separation….” “male gender identity is threatened by intimacy” “males tend to have difficulty with relationships” Girls: “femininity is defined through attachment” “female gender identity is threatened by separation” “females tend to have problems with individuation” Questions 3 & 4: Boys vs. Girls (pars.19, 20, 29)

4. Males vs. Females (par. 29) • “While for men, identity precedes intimacy and generativity in the optimal cycle of human separation and attachment, for women these tasks seem instead to be fused. Intimacy goes along with identity, as the female comes to know herself as she is known, through her relationships with others. … identity continues to precede intimacy as male experience continues to define his life-cycle conception.”

5, 6 & 7. Male vs. Female • Par. 31: Male is to "the world" as female is to "a relationship of intimacy." Discuss. • Father is to giant as mother is to _______________. (For the word "giant," see pars. 10 and 31.) How would Gilligan fill in the blank? How would YOU? • Par. 38: Re. games, boys are to rules as girls are to relationships.

Men: List characteristics: Women: List characteristics: How Do Men and Women View Morality? (pars. 40-46)

Main Points About Morality • Par. 38: “boys in their games are more concerned with rules.” • Par. 58: “The psychology of women that has consistently been described as distinctive in its greater orientation toward relationships and interdependence implies a more contextual mode of judgment and a different moral understanding” (my emphasis).

Connection • Do you see the connection to McIntosh’s “White Privilege”? • What similar point is she making about males?

McIntosh’s Homology • Whites:blacks::men:women. • Whites are to blacks as men are to women. • In other words, blacks and women are in a position of disadvantage, which arises from culture: whites and men are born with advantages that they assume are related to their inborn natures and that justify their sense of superiority.

Summing Things Up • Pars. 14-15: How is Freud the villain of this text? • Pars. 14-18: How does Chodorow differ from Freud and try to correct him? • Whose side is Gilligan on?

POINT • Par. 18, top left: “‘From very early, then, because they are parented by a person of the same gender . . . girls come to experience themselves as less differentiated than boys, as more continuous with and related to the external object-world, as differently oriented to their inner object-world as well.’” • This difference is descriptive, not qualitative.

What about Us? • Rules/laws vs. relationships: Does one of these have greater influence on your view of morality because you are a man or a woman? • What does morality mean to you? • Have you encountered bias related to women’s assumed inferiority? • Does Gilligan’s text bring your relationship with your mother into clearer focus? • Do you resonate with Gilligan’s statements about the role of play for boys and girls?

Would Gilligan Agree with Emerson? • Emerson, par. 14: “When we have new perception, we shall gladly disburden the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish.” • Emerson, par. 5: “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.” END

Gilligan’s In a Different Voice