CAROL
GILLIGAN’S
THEORY
Nilofer Khatri
P21014

Who is Carol Gilligan?
•Research assistant for Laurence Kohlberg
•For Gilligan, Kohlberg’s theory was biased
towards males
•Her criticism is found in the book in a
different voice
•For her, women have different moral and
psychological tendencies than men
A social psychologist
“Where boys and men are concerned with a morality
based on rules and abstract principles of justice, girls
and women are based on care and compassion. She
contrasted her morality of care with Kohlberg’s morality
of justice.”

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of
cancer. There was one drug that the doctor thought might
save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the
same town had recently discovered. The drug was
expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten
times what the drug cost him to make. He paid €200 for
the radium and charged €2,000 for a small dose of the
drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone
he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get
together about €1,000 which is half of what it cost. He
told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to
sell it cheaper or let him pay for it later. But the druggist
said: “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make
money from it.” So, Heinz got desperate and broke into
the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.
Should the husband have done that?
The Heinz
Dilemma

Kohlberg's theory
Pyramid of stages of moral development

Levels of Kohlberg's Theory
Pre-conventional
morality
Post-conventional
morality
Conventional
morality
At this level, the child
thinks in terms of the
consequences of
disobedience to adult rules
in order to avoid
punishment. Behaviours are
'good' or 'bad' and is guided
by rewards and
punishments.
At this level, the child
begins to grasp social
rules and gains a more
objective perspective on
right and wrong. There is
superego development, or
the formation of a
conscience.
At this level, the
emphasis is no longer
on conventional or
societal standards of
morality, but rather on
personal or idealized
principles.

•Kohlberg’s studies stressed the cognitive factors in moral
understanding.
•Qualities of moral personhood and moral reflection associated with
women have been devalued in psychological and philosophical
theory.
•The conception of maturity is derived from the study of men’s lives
and reflects the importance of individuation in their development.
‘‘In a series of studies designed to investigate the relationship between
conceptions of self and morality and to test their association with gender
and age, two moral voices could reliably be distinguished in the way
people framed and resolved moral problems and in their evaluations of
choices they made. One voice speaks of connection, not hurting, care, and
response; and one speaks of equality, reciprocity, justice, and rights . . .
The pattern of predominance, although not gender specific, was gender
related . . .’’ (Gilligan, 1988b, p. 8).
Why Did Gilligan Criticise
Kohlberg's Theory?
Gilligan believed that girls
and women use different
standards from boys and
men in making moral
judgments.

Gilligan's Work
Anecdotal accounts of the differences between a girl (Amy) and
a boy (Jake), both aged 11, in their approaches to the Heinz dilemma.
Both realize that there is a problem
that needs to be mediated, but Jake
thinks impersonally through systems
of logic and law, and Amy thinks
through communication in
relationship. Just as Jake relies on
the conventions of logic to deduce the
solution to this dilemma, assuming
these conventions to be shared, so she
relies on a process of communication,
assuming connection and believing
that her voice will be heard.
Jake’s response : For one thing, a human life is worth
more than money, and if the druggist only makes
€1,000, he is still going to live, but if Heinz doesn't
steal the drug, his wife is going to die. The druggist can
get a thousand dollars later from rich people with
cancer, but Heinz can't get his wife again.
Amy’s response : If he stole the drug, he might save his
wife then, but if he did, he might have to go to jail.
There might be other ways besides stealing it, like if he
could borrow the money or make a loan or something,
but he really shouldn’t steal the drug – but his wife
shouldn’t die either.

Gilligan's stages of
ethics of care
Third Focus—Dynamic interrelationship between self and others
Transition Stage—Questions illogic of inequality between needs of
others and self
Second Focus—Responsibility and material care for dependent
others Self-sacrifice
Transition Stage—Self focus as unacceptably selfish
First Focus—Caring for self and ensuring survival

Gilligan vs Kohlberg

Conclusion
Gilligan’s notions of the morality of care
versus the morality of justice may retain their
cogency, and perhaps they do suggest that
Kohlberg may have overlooked an important
source of moral reasoning by neglecting the
ethos of care; or at least by giving it less
weight than justice in his hierarchy.
But some boys and men do embrace a morality
of care and concern; and likewise, some women
and girls are more logical and less sociable in
their worldviews.
Is one point of view concerning moral
judgments more advanced or civilized
than the other?
Are there two separate “tracts” or
dimensions to moral reasoning?

Fleming, J. S. (2006). Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan, and others on moral
development. Retrieved August 12, 2011
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's
development. Harvard University Press.
in a different voice. (n.d.). Home.
Meighan, Katherine Wells. "In a Similar Voice: A Unifying Economic Analysis of
Gilligan's Amy and Jake." The American University Journal of Gender, Social
Policy & the Law 2, no.1 (1993): 139-169.
Reiter, S. 1996. The Kohlberg-Gilligan controversy: Lessons for accounting
ethics education. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 7: 33-54.
References

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