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Who Cares?
Women, Care, and Culture
Julia T. Wood-iii-
Questia Media America, Inc.
www.questia.com
Publication Information:
Book Title: Who Cares?Women, Care and Culture. Contributors: Julia T. Wood -author. Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press. Place of Publication: Carbondale, IL. Publication Year: 1994.Page Number: iii.
CHAPTER 4
Gilligan's Rhetorical Construction of "Woman"
Woman is discursively constructed.-- D.Riley,
Am I That Name? Feminism and the Category of "Women" in History
Woman's place in man's life cycle has been that of nurturer, caretaker, and helpmate.-- Carol Gilligan,
In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development
As I've argued in previous chapters, whatever image of woman we have, it grows inlarge measure out of discourse. In rhetorical acts -- both discursive and nondiscursive,public and private -we encounter images of woman, which is to say we encounterarguments for who she is, what she does, and how she is to be regarded. Recently, anumber of scholars have made a discursive turn, increasingly infusing their work with anappreciation of the power of language in constructing definitions of woman. Smith( 1985) offers a rationale for the focus on discourse when she writes, "I do not think wecan understand femininity as ideal or as practice unless we understand it as adiscourse..., unless we understand the complexity of themes, and intertextuality, and thecharacter of the relation between text and she who read it for whatever relevance it hadto her everyday world" (249).In this chapter I pursue Smith's insight by examining in detail a particular argument forwomen's nature and what their lives should be about. It is an argument that women areand should be oriented toward caring for others, and it was most elaborately andpersuasively put forward by
Carol Gilligan in 1982. Publication of
In a Different Voice
catapulted Gilligan into the front ranks of feminist theorizing in general and the debateover woman's nature in particular. In it, Gilligan argues that conventional-62-
Questia Media America, Inc.
www.questia.com
Publication Information:
Book Title: Who Cares?Women, Care and Culture. Contributors: Julia T. Wood -author. Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press. Place of Publication: Carbondale, IL. Publication Year: 1994.Page Number: 62.
moral theory neglects the perspective women employ in their reasoning. That viewpoint,which she labels the care perspective, prioritizes caring and responsibility torelationships, issues Gilligan reports predominate in women's thinking.Gilligan's theory of care has inspired substantial research ( Belenky , Clinchy, Goldberger,& Tarule, 1986; Eichenbaum & Orbach , 1987; Wood, 1986) and equally substantialcriticism ( Forum , 1986; Kittay & Meyers, 1987). Not restricted in impact to intellectualcircles,
In a Different Voice
proved so popular with laypersons that it was reissued inpaperback and again sold well -a notably rare feat for university press publications.Reflecting this widespread interest was Ms. magazine's naming of Carol Gilligan as"Woman of the Year" in 1984.The argument Gilligan advanced reignited long-standing dissension over woman's nature.The controversy sparked by this work can be previewed by considering Gilligan'sstatement of purpose and some responses to it. Gilligan states early in her book that shehopes to offer women "a representation of their thought that enables them to see betterits integrity and validity" (3). A number of scholars seem to agree with Gilligan that someessential qualities de4fine women universally across time and space. Hartmann ( Winkler,1986), for instance, insists that "some factors that shape women's identity are stableand enduring" (A-6).Many other scholars, however, argue not only that this purpose isn't achieved but thatGilligan's definition of woman is both inaccurate and regressive. Scott ( 1986), forinstance, claims Gilligan's work is "ahistorical, defining woman/man as a universal, self-reproducing binary opposition -- fixed always in the same way" ( 1065). Some theoristsreject even the concept of woman, arguing that it is monolithic and, thus, restricts allwomen to only those possibilities that have been historically legitimated. Irigaray ( 1985)defines women by diversity: "Woman...is not ...a unit(y)...single ideality" (229).As these opening paragraphs indicate, a number of responses to the book and critiquesof certain aspects of it have appeared. Yet, oddly, there has been no sustained criticalanalysis of the work's argument as it specifically contributes to current debates onwoman's nature. In this chapter I offer a critical reading of
In a Different Voice
. I intendto explicate the definition of woman-63-
Questia Media America, Inc.
www.questia.com
Publication Information:
Book Title: Who Cares?Women, Care and Culture. Contributors: Julia T. Wood -author. Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press. Place of Publication: Carbondale, IL. Publication Year: 1994.Page Number: 63.
Gilligan advocates and to disclose the rhetorical means by which she constructs thatimage. By returning to one of the key texts around which the contemporary controversyover woman's nature centers we should be able to better understand the discursive rootsof the debate as well as the ongoing possibilities for using discourse to define bothwomen and caring.In the analysis that follows, I disclose the tension sustained between two voices, orauthorial personnas, that emerge in the text: the voice of the "scholar" and the voice of the "partisan."
I argue that, despite her explicitly stated intent to affirm and empowerwomen, Gilligan essentializes woman, and the particular essentialization of womanGilligan advances invites, ironically, a restrictive and dangerously regressive view of women.My argument proceeds first by disclosing the existence of two different and rhetoricallycooperative voices in Gilligan's work. Second, I identify three rhetorical techniquesGilligan uses to construct her image of woman: First, Gilligan assumes the voice of thescholar while engaging in a variety of discursive acts that are conventionally inconsistentwith that persona. Second, Gilligan relies on a rhetorical strategy of dichotomizingwomen and men to create simplified and oppositional portraits of the genders. Finally,Gilligan conflates historical and literary illustrations with demonstrative proofs for herclaims. As she engages in each of these techniques, Gilligan relies on her ethos as ascholar to confer legitimacy on her arguments as a partisan that women are defined bytheir capacities to care and nurture.Following this reading of Gilligan's work, I probe implications of the essentialized imageof woman that she advances. In particular, I ask whether her advocacy of caring as afocus in women's lives is sensitive to the historical fact and ongoing potential for caringand focus on relationships to cement women's subordinate status in Western culture. If itis not, then we must ask how caring can be preserved in contemporary humancommunities without oppressing those who provide it.
Gilligan's Different Voices
Like the society it describes, Gilligan's book contains two voices -one dominant, the othermuted. The voices are sufficiently dif--64-
Questia Media America, Inc.
www.questia.com
Publication Information:
Book Title: Who Cares?Women, Care and Culture. Contributors: Julia T. Wood -author. Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press. Place of Publication: Carbondale, IL. Publication Year: 1994.Page Number: 64.
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Who Cares (Gilligan's Rhetorical Construction of "Woman")
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