 Carol Gilligan University Professor |
An internationally acclaimed psychologist
and prolific writer, Carol Gilligan has been instrumental in research
on adolescence, moral development, women’s development, and conflict
resolution. As a feminist, scholar, professor, and author, she has
been a pioneer of gender studies and helped to form a new direction
for women. She is most known for In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (1982), a book in which she criticized Lawrence Kohlberg’s research on the moral development of children. Gilligan, who came to be known as the founder of “difference feminism,” asserted that women have differing moral and psychological tendencies than men. According to Gilligan, men think in terms of rules and justice, while women are more inclined to think in terms of caring and relationships. Her work formed the basis for what has become known as the ethics of care, a theory that contrasts ethics of care to so-called ethics of justice. In 1997, Gilligan was appointed to Harvard University’s first position in gender studies and was an integral part of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development. In addition, she worked on the Harvard Project on Women's Psychology, Boy’s Development, and the Culture of Manhood. The recipient of numerous awards, Gilligan was given the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Education in 1992 and was named one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential people in 1996. In 1997, she received the Heinz Award for knowledge of the Human Condition and for her challenges to previously held assumptions in the field of human development and what it means to be a human. She has authored and coauthored numerous books and publications. Her principal publications include Women, Girls, and Psychotherapy: Reframing Resistance (1991); Meeting at the Crossroads (1992); Between Voice and Silence: Women and Girls, Race and Relationship (1995); and The Birth of Pleasure (2002). |