Gender and Moral Devt of Carol Gilligan
C. GILLIGAN’S
GENDER & MORALITY DEVELOPMENT
Carol Gilligan compared the moral development of girls and boys in her theory of gender and moral development. She claimed that boys have a justice perspective meaning that they rely on formal rules to define right and wrong. Girls, on the other hand, have a care and responsibility perspective where personal relationships are considered when judging a situation. Gilligan also studied the effect of gender on self-esteem. She claimed that society's socialization of females is the reason why girls' self-esteem diminishes as they grow older. Girls struggle to regain their personal strength when moving through adolescence as they have fewer female teachers and most authority figures are men.
Every society has a system of learned attitudes about social practices, institutions, and behavior used to evaluate situations, experiences, and behavior as right or wrong, good or bad. Although, there are known standards of morality within the society in which we live, adults are driven and motivated differently on how they come to make their moral decisions every day. Carol Gilligan, well known psychologist, professor, and author, was the first to claim there are gender differences within the moral development between males and females. She believes that women have different moral criteria and follow a different path in maturation and that our lives are shaped by the moral questions and decisions we make every day (Hekman, 1997). In general, Gilligan’s research noted gender differences in feelings towards caring, relationships, and connections with other people among males and females. More specifically Gilligan noted that women are more concerned with care, relationships, and connections with other people and men are more inclined to think in terms of rules and justice. Gilligan’s alternative theory of development of women proposes three stages of preconventional, conventional, and post conventional where the transitions
GENDER & MORALITY DEVELOPMENT
Carol Gilligan compared the moral development of girls and boys in her theory of gender and moral development. She claimed that boys have a justice perspective meaning that they rely on formal rules to define right and wrong. Girls, on the other hand, have a care and responsibility perspective where personal relationships are considered when judging a situation. Gilligan also studied the effect of gender on self-esteem. She claimed that society's socialization of females is the reason why girls' self-esteem diminishes as they grow older. Girls struggle to regain their personal strength when moving through adolescence as they have fewer female teachers and most authority figures are men.
Every society has a system of learned attitudes about social practices, institutions, and behavior used to evaluate situations, experiences, and behavior as right or wrong, good or bad. Although, there are known standards of morality within the society in which we live, adults are driven and motivated differently on how they come to make their moral decisions every day. Carol Gilligan, well known psychologist, professor, and author, was the first to claim there are gender differences within the moral development between males and females. She believes that women have different moral criteria and follow a different path in maturation and that our lives are shaped by the moral questions and decisions we make every day (Hekman, 1997). In general, Gilligan’s research noted gender differences in feelings towards caring, relationships, and connections with other people among males and females. More specifically Gilligan noted that women are more concerned with care, relationships, and connections with other people and men are more inclined to think in terms of rules and justice. Gilligan’s alternative theory of development of women proposes three stages of preconventional, conventional, and post conventional where the transitions