Carol Gilligans In a Different Voice Psychological Theory and Womens Development can be considered a study of contrasts. Not just how women differ from men in thought processes and self expression, but also of contrasts of ethics, developmental theories, of selfishness versus selflessness, separation and attachment, and responsibility to self versus other. Gilligan realized that the way people speak of themselves is of importance and one can find significance by actively listening to, analyzing, and understanding the female voice. She lays out well the broad-ranging effects associated with recognizing the differences between mens thought processes and womens. While not without some flaws, the book, originally published in 1982, continues to stand as seminal work in the field of psychology as well as philosophy and womens studies.
It is important to understand the context in which the idea of the book was born, as this theme recurs throughout the book. Writing during the era of the Supreme Courts decision Roe vs. Wade, Gilligan says
When the highest court made it legal for a woman to speak for herself and awarded
women the deciding voice in a complex matter of relationship which involved
responsibility for life and for death, many women became aware of the strength of
an internal voice which was interfering with their ability to speak. (p. ix)
Paraphrasing Gilligan, women were conditioned not to bring their voice in relationships and not to trust their own experiences, lest they risk abandonment or retaliation. They were conditioned to be selfless, to put the needs of others before them. What was critical was not who they were, but who they were in relation to. Again, quoting Gilligan, Womens discovery that to be selfless means not to be in relationship is revolutionary (p. xiii). So too is the idea that women can and should speak for themselves, in their own voice.
Structurally, In a Different Voice is a work broken up into separate, but overlapping chapters. The Introductory chapter presents the three major studies that formed the groundwork for the book
college student study
abortion decision study and
rights and responsibilities study.
Gilligan does provide the reader some background on the studies. However, because In a Different Voice is not a publication of a research study, detailed descriptions of the studies is forgone and the focus is on the outcome or the feedback from participants. The six chapters that make up the body of the work continue to reference the studies, bring in relevant theories and theorists, and allow Gilligan a vehicle with which to express her interpretations and findings.
It is difficult to say whether In a Different Voice is primarily a psychological work, a philosophical work, or a work in the ever-expanding field of womens studies. In analyzing the book it is interesting to note her description of the word voice and what having a voice really means. She cites the work of Kristin Linklater (pg. xvi) in helping her realize that voice is not just a sound, but a physiological, cultural, and psychological construct. Indeed, Gilligan writes, To have a voice is to be human. (pg. xvi). Thus the title of the work acknowledges that women are indeed humans with their own physical, psychological, and cultural context, a context that may not follow societys existing norms.
To best understand Gilligans framework for the book, it is helpful to understand the major theoretical frameworks in place at the time. First and foremost were the theories espoused by Sigmund Freud. Freud, considered by many the father of modern psychiatry, made many brilliant advances in the field of psychiatry and psychology. However, his research findings on womens development are distinctly misogynistic. Basing psychological development on physical anatomy, he proposed that women were inferior to men as they lacked a penis (thus having penis envy) and therefore they never resolved their Oedipal complex. As quoted by Gilligan, Freud wrote, in his 1925 work Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Differences Between the Sexes that women show less sense of justice than men, that they are less ready to submit to the great exigencies of life, that they are more often influenced in their judgments by feelings of affection or hostility. (p.7) Clearly Freud lay a framework for womens voices not to be heard. Gilligan found, however, that The elusive mystery of womens development lies in its recognition of the continuing importance of attachment in the human life cycle (p. 23) and not anatomical differences as Freud proposed.
Another theorist whose ideas played a major role in Gilligans work is Erik Erikson. Erikson is noted for his stage theory, dividing human development into stages, each stage having a psychosocial crisis. It is through the resolution (or lack thereof) of the crises that humans develop. Whereas values ascribed to being a man, i.e. being independent, strong, proud, productive generally involve the positive resolution of these crises, what is valued in women, nurturing, helping, and being supportive is contradictory to the positive resolution of the crises. At each stage one can see how the typical female who is not socialized for independence would not resolve the crisis and not develop fully, when seen through the lens of the male dominated society.
Writes Gilligan
Since masculinity is defined through separation while femininity is defined through
attachment, male gender identity is threatened by intimacy while female gender
identity is threatened by separation. Thus males tend to have difficulty with
relationships while females tend to have problems with individuation. (p. 8)
Further she writes of the importance of attachment and its counterpart, separation, Attachment and separation anchor the cycle of human life describing the biology of human reproduction and the psychology of human development. (p. 151)
One of the other major theorists discussed is Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg, too, had stages, and Gilligan specifically notes that his findings are based solely on his study of boys. In addition, Gilligan notes
Kohlberg and Kramer imply that only if women enter the traditional arena of male
activity will they recognize the inadequacy of this moral perspective and progress like
men toward higher stages where relationships are subordinated to rules (stage four) and
rules to universal principles of justice. (p. 18)
As Gilligan notes, Kohlbergs writing and theory tends to devalue where women are strong (i.e. goodness equated with helping and pleasing others). Gilligan discusses, by way of her interviewees in her studies, how women fall short of the male standard and fail to develop using Kohlbergs six stages.
As previously noted, Gilligan based much of her book on findings from the three studies listed earlier. Methodologically, relied she relied heavily on quotes from her respondents and analysis of the quotes. One particular data collection technique, use of interpretive stories, was prevalent in the book. Gilligan used in her studies a vignette developed by Kohlberg, Heinz dilemma. The story is of a man (Heinz) with a dying wife. While there is a drug that will help her, the druggist is selling it at an exorbitant price, one Heinz cannot afford. The dilemma should Heinz steal the drug
As Gilligan wanted to look at the different ways women think and their moral framework, she asked participants in her research in what they thought Heinz should do. As she analyzed respondents answers, she noticed how men and women differed in how they constructed the problem to be solved. Boys, she found, appeared to frame the problem logically and according to rules. Girls, on the other hand, looked at the problem as one of an interpersonal nature, looking at the nature of the relationship involved not necessarily what the right thing to do was. In citing the vignettes of Jake and Amy, two eleven-year-olds who were asked Heinz dilemma, Gilligan succinctly highlights the difference between the genders, Both children thus recognize the need for agreement but see it as mediated in different ways-he impersonally through systems of logic and law, she personally through communication in relationship. (p. 29).
In A Different Voice, however, is not a work dedicated to the differences between men and women. It primarily focuses on Gilligans research with women and highlights how they respond in various moral or psychological conditions. For example, Chapter 3, Concepts of Self and Morality, focuses on analyzing womens responses to the questions posed in the abortion decision study. The chapter does not focus on the outcomes of the pregnancies, though it is mentioned, rather on choice and responsibility, how having a choice brings about concerns of responsibility and the responsibility inherent in choice. Recognizing the timeframe (post Roe vs. Wade) the concept of choice had meaning to women, initially in the context of a pregnancy, but later in making their own decisions and realizing they had a choice in who they were and who they wanted to be. In a Different Voice brought to light this point through case studies, interviews, and by contrasting existing theories of male and female development and psychology.
As noted on the first page of this analysis, Gilligans work can be viewed from the framework of contrasts. While she states that the college student study explored identity and moral development, (p.2) in Chapter 2 she analyzed the difference between men and women as they completed stories noting in particular the projected violence in the mens stories as contrasted to the womens. She noted that mens stories consistently had more themes of violence whereas womens prevailed on relationships. She found that, for women, the world of intimacy which appears so mysterious and dangerous to men comes instead to appear increasingly coherent and safe. (p. 43) Not only is it safe, but necessary for survival.
Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too is the interpretation of the female experience. Womens behavior has always been held against the male standard, as the male standard has been the norm since biblical times, adopting the male life as the norm, they have tried to fashion women out of a masculine cloth. (p.6) The primary theorists cited by Gilligan (Freud, Erikson, Kohlberg as well as Piaget) are all males whose studies were premised upon typical behavior though still male behavior.
Ideologically, she found distinct differences between men and women when looking at fundamental beliefs. In citing a playground study and the differences in game-playing for boys versus girls, she comments that boys more readily resolved disputes whereas girls would end the game over a dispute put another way, girls subordinated the continuation of the game to the continuation of relationships. (p.10).
The importance of relationships to women cannot be understated. As noted by Gilligan, Thus women not only define themselves in a context of human relationship but also judge themselves in terms of their ability to care. (p. 17). It is the concept of self in relation that has come to define women, not just self. Gilligan cites the early suffragettes in recognizing that self does not have to be in relation to when Elizabeth Cady Stanton told the press,Self development is a higher duty than self sacrifice. (p. 129). Gilligan refers to the belief at the time that selfishness was the cardinal sin in the ladder of feminine virtue. (p. 129) Continuing with the historical theme, Gilligan often cited authors and their works (i.e. The Mill on the Floss, The Waterfall, A Dolls House) and how they were representative of womens choices as a function of prevailing theory. Understanding the importance of the view of the self, Gilligan details that the rights and responsibilities study focused on different modes of thinking about morality and their relation to different views of self (p.3)
Although she does not focus her work at length on the theoretical difference between self and other, between selflessness and selfishness, and the individual versus individual in relationship, she does reference another author, Jean Miller, who complements her thoughts, She finds in psychology no language to describe the structuring of womens sense of self, organized around being able to make and then maintain affiliations and relationships. (Miller, as cited in Gilligan, p.48). Given the constraints of interpretation, that the perception of rightwrong, goodbad, healthyunhealthy historically has been set by men and their rules, Gilligan aptly writes that understanding of womens experience is mirrored by the problem created for women by the failure to represent their experience or by the distortion in its representation. (p. 49) She summarizes well the importance of self and other when she writes
To admit the truth of the womens perspective to the conception of moral development
is to recognize for both sexes the importance throughout life of the connection between
self and other, the universality of the need for compassion and care. (p.98)
The theme of selflessness is particularly emphasized in Chapter 5, Womens Rights and Womens Judgment. Using case examples, Gilligan highlights how selfishness is bad and how conflicts of morality exist in a world that is full of relationships. These moral conflicts are not just about caring for self versus other, they are more global in terms of responsibility equating responsibility with caring rather than with not hurting. (p. 148) or seeing caring for themselves as acceptable caretaking. Also in Chapter 6, Visions of Maturity, the ideas of intimacy, identity, and the meaning of the self are addressed. As Gilligan found, all of the women describe a relationship depicting their identity in the connection of future mother, present wife, adopted child, or past lover (p. 159). Further, in all of the womens descriptions, identity is defined in a context of relationship and judged by a standard of responsibility and care. (p. 160)
Gilligan highlights the how moral differences play out during development. To summarize
The morality of rights is predicated on equality and centered on the understanding of
fairness, while the ethic of responsibility relies on the concept of equity, the recognition
of differences in need. (p. 164)
She goes on to discuss how this impacts maturity and the belief systems associated with it. She states how both genders come to understand justice and care. Rather than define terms such as justice, care, morality, truth, etc. Gilligan uses her case studies to show how the existing belief structure is different between women and men.
Though well researched and written, the book is not without faults. For one, the sample sizes of the three studies were small (college student study 45 women, abortion decision study 29 women, rights and responsibilities study 144 of both genders). It is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about women with fewer than 200 women. The study also underrepresented men while Gilligan focuses her energies on theories-to-date, she does not recognize that men, too, are changing in their thought processes. This is not to say that the theories from the past are no longer valid they are but so are other new and more egalitarian theories. Lastly, the use of case studies, while powerful, limits replication and, without knowing the details of Gilligans methodology, could hinder validity.
Gilligan closes Chapter 2 discussing the paradoxical truths of human experience that we know ourselves as separate only insofar as we live in connection with others, and that we experience relationship only insofar as we differentiate others from self.(p. 63) The idea of self and other as it relates to women and how they are heard is a salient point in Gilligans In a Different Voice. Gilligan notes how history and historians has shaped womens view of themselves, and how, given the right to choose, women are now able to speak up for themselves, just in a different voice.
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