Carol Gilligan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Carol Gilligan
Gilligan in 2011
Born	(1936-11-28) November 28, 1936 (age 88) New York City, US
Alma mater	Swarthmore College Radcliffe College Harvard University
Occupation	Professor
Notable work	In a Different Voice Mapping the Moral Domain Making Connections Meeting at the Crossroads The Birth of Pleasure
Spouse(s)	James Gilligan
Children	3
Awards	1984: Ms. Woman of the Year 1992: Grawemeyer Award 1996: Time magazine's 25 most influential people in the United States 1998: Heinz Award 2025: Kyoto Prize

Carol Gilligan (born November 28, 1936) is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist. She is famous for her ideas about how people make moral choices. She also studied how people form caring relationships.

Carol Gilligan is a professor at New York University. She also taught at the University of Cambridge. She is well-known for her book In a Different Voice (1982). In this book, she shared her ideas about how people develop their sense of right and wrong.

In 1996, Time magazine named her one of America's most important people. She is seen as the person who started the idea of the ethics of care. This idea focuses on caring for others in moral decisions.

Early Life and Family

Carol Gilligan grew up in New York City. She was the only child of a lawyer and a nursery school teacher. She went to a progressive private school and played the piano.

She earned her first degree in English literature from Swarthmore College. Then, she got a master's degree in clinical psychology from Radcliffe College. She later earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University.

Carol Gilligan is married to James Gilligan, a doctor. They have three children: Jonathan, Timothy, and Christopher. Her son, Jonathan Gilligan, is a professor at Vanderbilt University. He has also worked with his mother on plays and operas.

Teaching and Research Career

Carol Gilligan started teaching at the University of Chicago in 1965. She then became a lecturer at Harvard University in 1967. She became a full professor at Harvard in 1988.

She also taught at the University of Cambridge for two years. In 2002, she left Harvard to join New York University. She continued to be a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge until 2009.

Gilligan studied how women and girls develop. She wrote many books with her students. She also wrote a piece for the book Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium. In 2008, she published her first novel, Kyra.

Understanding Psychology

Gilligan is known for her work with Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg developed stages of moral development. Gilligan, who was his research assistant, believed his stages were mostly based on men. This made it hard to understand how women developed morally.

She explained that there are two main ways people think about morals. One is a "masculine" voice, which focuses on rules and justice. The other is a "feminine" voice, which focuses on relationships and caring for others. Gilligan argued that Kohlberg's stages mainly used the "masculine" voice.

Gilligan believes that combining both ways of thinking is best. This means using both logic and care in making decisions.

Gilligan's Stages of Moral Development

Gilligan created her own stages of moral development. These stages focus on how women make moral choices. She used Kohlberg's idea of pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional stages. However, she based her research on women's experiences.

• Stage 1: Pre-conventional Morality

* This stage is about self-interest and survival. * A person focuses on their own needs first. * Transition 1: The person starts to realize they are responsible for others. They see that they might have been selfish before.

• Stage 2: Conventional Morality

* This stage is about being selfless and caring for others. * A person puts the needs of others before their own. This can lead to self-sacrifice. * Transition 2: The person realizes their own needs are just as important. They learn to balance their needs with the needs of others. This is a shift from just being "good" to being "truthful" about everyone's needs.

• Stage 3: Post-conventional Morality

* In this stage, people think about how their actions affect others. They take responsibility for these effects. * They take control of their own lives and show strong care for others. * They understand that their needs are as important as others' needs. This leads to a universal ethic of care.

Her book In a Different Voice explains these ideas in more detail. It helped make her a leader in the feminist movement.

Important Books

As a feminist, Carol Gilligan has written many books about women and girls. Here are some of her most famous works.

In a Different Voice

This book, published in 1982, is one of her most important. Gilligan believed that psychology often focused on men's experiences. She wanted to give women a chance to share their voices.

She interviewed college students and women making important life choices. From these studies, she developed her ideas about the ethics of care.

Gilligan pointed out that older theories, like those from Freud, struggled to understand women's experiences. She used an example of a boy and a girl answering a moral problem. The boy saw it as a logic problem, while the girl saw it as a problem about human relationships. Gilligan argued that both ways of thinking are valid.

She explained that the "different voice" she described is not just about gender. It's about a different way of thinking. This way of thinking is often seen in women. However, it can be used by anyone.

As of 2022, In a Different Voice has been translated into 20 languages. It has sold over 700,000 copies.

The Birth of Pleasure: A New Map of Love

In this book, Gilligan explores how to find love. She uses stories from history and literature, like Adam and Eve and Cupid. She writes about why people sometimes feel pain before finding joy in love.

Gilligan believes that a child's natural ability to love freely can be limited by society. She argues that society often pushes boys to be aggressive. It also makes girls lose their voice.

Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development

Gilligan wrote this book with Mikel Brown. They discuss the challenges girls face during adolescence. They studied 100 girls to understand their feelings and thoughts.

The book offers insights into how girls develop. It also looks at the psychology of women.

Women, Girls and Psychotherapy: Reframing Resistance

Gilligan, Annie G. Rogers, and Deborah L. Tolman wrote this book together. They look at the needs of teenage girls. They suggest that girls' "resistance" can be a way to stay healthy.

Making Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School

Gilligan, Nona P. Lyons, and Trudy J. Hanmer wrote this book. They explain that adolescence is a key time for girls. It's a time when girls might lose their voice and connection with others.

The book includes stories from adolescent girls. These stories help explain their ideas about themselves, relationships, and morals.

Mapping the Moral Domain: A Contribution of Women's Thinking to Psychological Theory

Gilligan, Janie Victoria Ward, Betty Bardige, and Jill McLean Taylor wrote this book. It builds on the ideas from In a Different Voice. They compare how men and women talk about relationships.

The authors show how women's voices are important for understanding human development. They explain that both men and women can use different moral perspectives.

Theater Work

In 1991, Gilligan and Kristin Linklater started an all-female theater group. Gilligan also attended acting workshops. This led her to write a play.

In 2002, Gilligan released a play based on The Scarlet Letter. Her son, Jonathan Gilligan, helped her write it. The play opened in Massachusetts. Gilligan used the play to show how society's rules can prevent true happiness in relationships.

Key Theories

In In a Different Voice, Gilligan presented her ethics of care theory. This was an alternative to Lawrence Kohlberg's ideas about ethics. Kohlberg thought that girls did not develop their moral skills as much as boys. Gilligan disagreed.

She argued that women approach moral problems differently from men. Women often focus on responsibilities and relationships. Men often focus on fairness, rights, and rules. Women tend to see moral issues as conflicts of responsibility. Men see them as competing rights.

Gilligan calls these different approaches "ethics of care" and "ethics of justice." She believes both are important. She says that within a fair society, care is a human way of thinking. It connects reason with emotion and self with relationships.

Awards and Recognition

Carol Gilligan has received many awards for her work:

• 1984: Ms. Woman of the Year
• 1992: Grawemeyer Award for her contributions to education
• 1996: Time magazine listed her among the 25 most influential people in the United States
• 1998: Heinz Award for understanding the human condition
• 2025: Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy

Honorary Degrees

Gilligan has also received honorary degrees from many colleges and universities:

• Regis College, 1983
• Swarthmore College, 1985
• Haverford College, 1987
• Fitchburg State College, 1989
• Wesleyan University, 1992
• Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 1996
• Northeastern University, 1997
• Smith College, 1999
• University of Haifa, 2006
• John Jay College, 2006
• Mount Holyoke, 2008

See also

In Spanish: Carol Gilligan para niños