Social Conrtrrrctionr of Self l5

velopments in how one views oneself. Many characteristics of modern,

Western constructions of self are refiected on this scale: autonomous think-
ing, abstrac~rationality, "poscconvenlional" universaliv (which frees one
from culturally constituted limitations), and recognition of and respect for
individual rights, d;gnity, and justice, What initktly troubled Glligan, how-
ever, is &at Mohlberg's studies and her own seemed to confirm a contention
made by Freud: that women, who rarely exceed stage 3 of Kohlberg's scale,
are less morally developed than men,
The problem, Gilligan later proposed, lies with MohIberg's scale and not
women5 lack of morality, Through her interviews with womell about abor-
tion, she concluded that women are just as concerned as men about moral
reasoning, but they tend to characterize moral and self-dcvelupmcnt "in a
different voice." In other words, women tend to be concerned with specific,
concrete situations rather than with principles of abstract rationality and
universality; with bnctioning as interdependent selves-in-refatiorrs rather
than as autonomous independent individuals; with maintaining caring rela-
tions and determining how their actions might affect e v e r p n e involved
rathcr than with making dccisions based on noncontcxtualized principles of
justice and duty.
Although Giliign does not want to posit an essentialist ahistoric theory
of female and male moralities, she also does not cxptore the basis ut: these
differently gendered constructions of self and moral development.2) Nancy
Chodorow, Nancy Hartsock, and other feminists argue that differently gen-
dercd relations of production and reproduction, different resolutions of
childhood psychological conflicts over sexual and gender identity, and dif-
ferent patterns of male-dominated scscialization establish specific contexts
within which concepts of self, including charactcristics of gost-Cartcsian
Western farmulations, are historically and culturally constizuted.

Relating the Critiques: Several Suggestions

We have briefly considered several traditional as well as recent critiques of a
construction of self that has dominated mucl-r of modern Western cuttural,
political, economic, social, ethical, and philosophical life. According to these
critiques, all of which view freedom and liberation in terms of ego-transcen-
dencc, our egoistic ctrlmral orientation is central to suffering, oppression, ex-
ploitation, alienation, bondage, and illusion.
Again, I must emphasize the degree to which I have oversimplified the
g x a t diversity of critiques of the ego/self within Hindu, Buddhist, Marxist,
and feminist philosophies. In actuality, of course, there are signi6cant differ-
ences among these four "alternative" approaches to the modern Western self.
Some theorists critique the historical and culmral construceion of the ego
and argue the essentialist position that posits a true, transcultural self or non-