Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T14:57:10.451Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Liberation of Caring; A Different Voice For Gilligan's “Different Voice”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Bill Puka
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent literature portrays caring as a psychological, social, and ethical orientation associated with female gender identity. This essay focuses on Giliigan's influential view that “care” is a broad theme of moral development which is under-represented in dominant theories of human development such as Kohlberg's theory. An alternative hypothesis is proposed portraying care development as a set of circumscribed coping strategies tailored to dealingwith sexism. While these strategies are practically effective and partially “liberated,” from the moral point of view, they also reflect the debilitating influences of sexist socialization even at the highest level. Gilligan and her colleagues seem to misidentify these inadequacies of mature care. This alternative hypothesis is briefly related to the critical and feminist tradition. Then it is supported with Gilligan's own research and interpretive text.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 1990 , pp. 58 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belenky, M., McVicker Clenchy, B., Rule Goldberg, N. and Mattuck Tarule, J. 1987. Women's ways of knowing. NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bettleheim, B. 1943. Individual and mass behavior in extreme situations. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychobgy 38:417–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broughton, J. 1984. Men's virtues, women's rationality. Social Research (winter).Google Scholar
Chodorow, N. 1978. The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Freud, A. 1946. The ego mechanisms of defense. NY: International University Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. 1982. In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. 1985. Reply to critics. Signs 9 (2).Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. 1987. Exit‐voice/dilemmas in adolescent development. In Development, democracy, and the art of trespassing, Goxley, A., McPherson, M. and O'Donnell, G., eds. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. and Belenky, M. 1979. A naturalistic study of abortion decisions. In Clmkal'Devebpmental psychology, Selman, R. and Yando, R., eds. San Francisco: Josey‐Bass.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. and Wiggins, G. 1988. The origins of morality in early childhood relations. In The emergence of morality m young Children, J. Kagan and Lamm, S., eds. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Jennings, W. and Kohlberg, L. 1983. Effects of just community programs on the moral level and institutional perception of youthful offenders. Journal of Moral Education 12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, W., Kilkenny, R. and Kohlberg, L. 1983. Moral development theory and practice for youthful and adult offenders. In Personality, theory, moral development and criminal behavior, Laufer, W. and Day, J., eds. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Johnston, K. 1985. Two moral orientations—two problem‐solving strategies: adolescents' solutions to dilemmas in fables. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L. 1984. The psychology of moral development. NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L., Kauffman, K., and Scharf, P. 1975. Corrections manual. Cambridge, MA: Moral Education Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Langdale, C. 1983. Moral observations and moral development. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Education.Google Scholar
Lyons, N. 1983. Two perspectives: On self, relationships and morality. Harvard Educational Review 53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J.B. 1976. Toward a new psychology of women. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Nicholson, L. 1983. Women, morality and history. Social Research 50 (3).Google Scholar
Noddings, N. 1985. Caring. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Perry, W. 1968. Forms of intellectual and ethical development m the college years. NY: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Puka, B. 1988. Ethical caring: Pros, cons, and possibilities. In Inquiry Into Values, Lee, S., ed. NY: Meilen Press.Google Scholar
Puka, B. 1990. Interpretive experiments: Probing the care‐justice debate in moral development. Human Development (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Sanford, N. 1955. The dynamics of identification. Psychological Review 51.Google ScholarPubMed
Walker, L. 1984. Sex differences in the development of moral reasoning: A critical review. ChiW Development 55.Google Scholar