CAROL GILLIGHAN

• A feminist theorist and psychologist.

• November 25, 1936 in New York City.
• Best known for her research into the moral
development of girls and women.
• Author of “Different Voice” book (Psychological
Theory and women’s Development (1982). In that
work, she argued that girls exhibit distinct
patterns of moral development based on
relationships and on feelings of care and
responsibility for others.
 Carol Gilligan
Moral Development Theory
• Started doing research by listening to
women and rethinking the meaning
between self and selfishness.
• Primary focus was on females.
• Based on two main ideas; the care-
based morality (usually found in
women) and the justice-based
morality (usually found in men).
 Carol Gilligan
Moral Development Theory
• Carol Gilligan was the first to
consider gender differences in
her research with the mental
processes of males and females
in their moral development.
• She came to realize men think in
terms of rules and justice.
• Women think in terms of caring
and relationships.
Three Stages of Moral
Development/Ethics of Care:
• Ethics of care — directs our attention to the
need for responsiveness in relationships
(paying attention, listening, responding)
and the costs of losing connection with
oneself or with others. Its logic is inductive,
contextual, psychological, rather than
deductive or mathematical.
 Three Stages of Moral
Development/Ethics of Care:
1. PRE-CONVENTIONAL – women interest in their self.
• Goal is individual survival
• Person only cares about themselves in order to
ensure survival
• This is how everyone is as children

Transition Phase
• The person’s attitude I considered selfish
• Afterwards they start to see the connection between
themselves and others
2. CONVENTIONAL – women overemphasize
others interest.
• Self-sacrifice is goodness
• Responsibility
• More care is shown towards others
• This stage is shown the most in
mothers and wives
• Sometimes leads to ignoring needs
of self
Transition Phase
• Tensions between responsibility of caring
for others and caring for self occurs
3. POST-CONVENTIONAL – women
interest together with the interest of
others.
• Principle of Non-Violence
• Do not hurt others or self
• Acceptance of the principle of care
of self and others
• Some people never get to this last
stage
 MERIT
• One positive implication is that her work has
influenced other psychologists in their evaluations
of morality. Also, Gilligan’s work highlights that
people think about other people in a humanly
caring way. Gilligan also emphasized that both
men and women think about caring when faced
with relationship dilemmas, similarly both are
likely to focus on justice when faced with
dilemmas involving others rights.
 MERIT
• Gilligan Formulated two modes of
moral development– rights and
responsibilities. These two modes
correspond to two moral
traditions in social work: a rights
perspective, based on liberal
individualism, and needs
perspective, based on nineteenth
century visions of Christian virtue.
 SHORTCOMINGS
• One critique state’s that Gilligan’s
observations are the result of societal
expectations of gender rather than
differences that naturally arise from
gender. Thus, if societal expectations
were different, the moral orientations
of males and females would also be
different.
 SHORTCOMINGS
• On the other hand, the most criticized element to
her theory is that it follows the stereotype of
women as nurturing, men as logical. The
participants of Gilligan’s research are limited to
mostly white, middle class children and adults
(Woods, 1996. In general, literature reviews have
provided that Gilligan’s work needs a broader
more multicultural basis.
SHORTCOMINGS
• Gilligan’s emphasis on
gender differences however,
has been criticized by some
feminist, who argue that
focusing on differences
between men and women
can serve as a justification
for ongoing inequality.
Implication to
Social Work
Practice
• The needs of others should not be put before your own
• Females have been known to show more interest in
relationship and caring
• Females notice things such as how they are being
treated more often than males
• Females show more emotion and tend to care more
about little things such as what others think of them.
 Quote from Carol
Gilligan:
“Women must learn to tend
to their own interest and the
interest of others.”
References
• Retrieved from: http://www.haikudeck.com
• Retrieved from: https://www.innet.org
• Retrieved from: https://www.goodtherephy.org
• Retrieved from: htpps://www.creighton.edu