The Philosopher

Carol Gilligan

The face

The background

Nationality:
American
Schools:
Ethics of care
Branchs:
Psychology, Ethics, Feminism
Period:
20th-century

The synopsis

Carol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist celebrated for her pioneering work on ethical community and relationships. She holds a professorship in Humanities and Applied Psychology at New York University and previously served as a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge. Gilligan gained significant recognition for her 1982 book, In a Different Voice, which challenged Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development by arguing that they were male-centric. This work laid the foundation for her influential theory of the ethics of care, which emphasizes empathy, relationships, and responsibility in moral reasoning. Her research primarily focused on women's psychology and girls' development, highlighting a distinct 'different voice' in moral decision-making that prioritizes care and connection. Gilligan's contributions have significantly impacted feminist theory and psychology, leading *Time* magazine to list her among America's most influential people in 1996. She has also explored these themes through other works, including novels and theatrical adaptations, further engaging with the complexities of human connection and societal structures.

The works

The quotes

In the different voice of women lies the truth of an ethic of care, the tie between relationship and responsibility, and the origins of aggression in the failure of connection.
Carol Gilligan
Certain issues have been associated with contemporary feminism and in a certain sense circumscribed for that reason.
Carol Gilligan
The hardest times for me were not when people challenged what I said, but when I felt my voice was not heard.
Carol Gilligan
Women have traditionally deferred to the judgment of men although often while intimating a sensibility of their own which is at variance with that judgment.
Carol Gilligan
I've found that if I say what I'm really thinking and feeling, people are more likely to say what they really think and feel. The conversation becomes a real conversation.
Carol Gilligan
At a time when efforts are being made to eradicate discrimination between the sexes in the search for social equality and justice, the differences between the sexes are being rediscovered.
Carol Gilligan
The women's movement is taking a different form right now, and it is because it has been so effective and so successful that there's a huge counter movement to try to stop it, to try to divide women from one another, to try to almost foment divisiveness.
Carol Gilligan
It all goes back, of course, to Adam and Eve - a story which shows among other things, that if you make a woman out of a man, you are bound to get into trouble.
Carol Gilligan
Everything about women is in perpetual crisis.
Carol Gilligan
I find the question of whether gender differences are biologically determined or socially constructed to be deeply disturbing.
Carol Gilligan
Many women have told me they remember where they were when they read the book, and how they felt suddenly that what they really thought or felt about things made sense.
Carol Gilligan