CAROL GILLIGAN THEORY OF

GENDER AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Theory background:
Carol Gilligan was a research assistant for great theorist of moral
development, Lawrence Kohlberg. Eventually Gilligan became
independent and began to criticize some of Kohlberg’s work. She felt that
Kohlberg only studied “privileged, white men and boys.” Kohlberg theory
is based on the belief that people go through several stages of moral
reasoning and that only men can reach the highest level of moral reasoning.
Gilligan thought that this caused a biased opinion against women.
 CAROL GILLIGAN THEORY OF
GENDER AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Carol Gilligan compared the moral development of girls and boys and
concluded that the two sexes use different standards of rightness. Boys,
Gilligan claims, have a justice perspective, relying on formal rules to
define right and wrong. Girls, by contrast, have a care perspective, judging
a situation with an eye toward personal relationships and loyalties.
For example: as boys see that stealing is wrong because it breaks the law
but girls are more likely to wonder why someone would steal. She will be
sympathetic to him and say he have to feed his family.
 CAROL GILLIGAN THEORY OF
GENDER AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Gilligan named the theory Ethics of Care. Her theory is divided into
three stages of moral development followed by Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development.
• Pre-conventional stage
• Conventional stage
• Post conventional stage
 CARE-BASED MORALITY AND
JUSTICE-BASED MORALITY
Post conventional level of moral development can be dealt on the basis of
two types of thinking, the care-based morality (usually found in women) and
justice-based morality (usually found in men)
Care-based morality:
• Emphasizes interconnectedness and universality.
• Acting justly means avoiding violence and helping those in need.
• More common in girls because of their connections to their mothers.
• Because girls remain connected to their mothers, they are less inclined to
worry about issues of fairness
Justice-based morality:
• Views the world as being composed of autonomous individuals who
interact with one another.
• Acting justly means avoiding inequality.
• More common in boys because of their need to differentiate between
themselves and their mothers.
• Because they are separated from their mothers, boys become more
concerned with the concept of inequality.