Carol Gilligan

1. Carol Gilligan November 28, 1936 (age 75)

2. Background • Born and raised in New York City • Only child of a lawyer and a nursery school teacher. • Education: • BA in literature at Swarthmore College (1958) • Masters in clinical psychology at Radcliffe (1960) • Doctorate in social psychology at Harvard (1964) • Began teaching at Harvard in 1967 with Erik Erikson and became a research assistant for Lawrence Kohlberg in 1970

3. Gilligan was critical of Kohlberg’s work for two main reasons: • He only studied privileged white men and boys. • She felt like this caused a biased opinion against girls. • In his stage theory of moral development, 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.

4. Theory of Development • Gilligan developed her own theory often referred to as the “Theory of Caring.” • According to Gilligan, men think in terms of rules and justice and women are more inclined to think in terms of caring and relationships.

5. Influence on Education • More so than Education, Gilligan most greatly influenced Psychology. • In 1997, Gilligan was appointed to Harvard University's first position in gender studies. • She has been an integral part of the Harvard Project on Women's Psychology and Girls' Development that she initiated. • This project unites the psychological study of women with the study of young girl's development. • She attempted to help both men and women see each other in a different perspective.

6. Criticism • The most criticized element to Gilligan’s theory is that it follows the stereotype that women are nurturing and men are logical. The participants of Gilligan’s research have been mostly white, middle class children and adults. • Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers says that Gilligan does not have data for her research. She says Gilligan used unreliable evidence and that researchers have not been able to duplicate her work (most likely because the samples she used were too small). Sommers does not find it helpful for girls and women to be told that they are diminished or voiceless. She also argues that promoting an anti-male agenda hurts both males and females.