Carol Gilligan Ethics of Care

Carol Gilligan - Ethics of Care

The central theme to Carol Gilligan's argument is that while women more often focus on care, men focus more on justice. The "care orientation," according to Gilligan, focuses on emotional relationships of attachment. Gilligan suggests that "humans who think in terms of the care orientation define themselves in terms of a system of relationships, connections, loyalties and circles of concern." (University of Reading Website)

The author also argues that psychology has "persistently and systematically misunderstood women - their motives, their moral commitments, the course of their psychological growth, and their special view of what is important in life." (Harvard).) A point she challenges is that if male development is largely a matter of increasing separation from others to achieve autonomy and independence, does that mean that women have failed to grow into mature adults if their development involves a continuing and unresolved struggle to balance their responsibilities to others with their commitment to themselves? (Ibid)

Gillian's argument is a reaction to the male-centered personality psychology of Freud and Erickson, and the male-centered developmental psychology of Kohlberg. Her complaint is not that it is unjust and unfair to leave women out of psychology, but rather that "it is not good psychology if it leaves out half the human race." (St. Olaf College)

Lawrence Kohlberg, Gilligan's mentor at Harvard, had the following three-phase stage theory that was to influence her future findings. The pre-conventional moral stage (up to age nine) is based on the cognitive abilities of a child to respond to rules and social expectations and differentiate between right and wrong, behaving according to how he or she has been brought up, with reward and punishment as the basis of behavioral patterns. The conventional stage (between the ages of 9 and 20) is based on the ability of the child or young adult to "de-center" their moral universe and combine the moral perspective of their parents with other members of society as a whole. In other words, the adolescent will behave in any given way according to the manner in which he or she was raised - plus what their friends think and perhaps even what the law dictates. The third stage, the post-conventional stage (20 years and older), deals with an adult's ability to base morality on universal standards. In this instance, the person no longer simply accepts the values and norms of the groups to which he or she belongs; instead, the person now tries to see situations from different angles, taking all interests into account; this is the questioning phase. For instance, if an adult at this stage is asked why something is wrong, the response will be derived from pre- determined processes that examine aspects such as fairness or equality to all in terms of moral justice and human rights, while acknowledging that people in any given society hold a variety of conflicting views and opinions. Albeit, the focus should be on reaching fair agreement and consensus. (Velasquez, M, pp. 27-30.)

Of course, there has been much criticism of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory; his main opposition being none other that Gilligan who believes that women should not be treated as if they are men. With regards to the question of justice, Gilligan - based on information gathered from sensitive interviews with women - concluded that women are more in tune with being naturally helpful and caring and that people generally connected better with fellow humans rather than rely solely on justice for support. Gilligan alleged that Kohlberg did not fully understand women's development in moral thinking. (St. Olaf College)

Gilligan emphasizes that women are not inferior in their personal or moral development, but rather that they are different. She also opposes Freud's view that women's moral sense was stunted because they stayed attached to their mothers and Erik Erickson's belief that the tasks of development were separation from mother and the family. (Ibid) Gilligan produced her own stage theory of moral development, which has three major divisions namely pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional, yet the "transitions between the stages are fueled by changes in the sense of self rather than in changes in cognitive capacity." (Ibid.)

She strongly opposed Kohlberg's theory because it was based on male-only interviews and in doing so she revealed that there are many variations to moral reasoning. Her claim is that women had no place in earlier theories and this is why women's development is seen in a different light. She showed that there are two different ways to approach moral issues. There is the male approach - impersonal, impartial and abstract moral rules and then there is the female approach - sustaining relationships, being part of a web of relationships with family and friends, avoiding hurt and caring for others. (Velasquez, M, pp. 27-30.)

In the 1970s and 80s, many feminist writers began to question the assumptions behind many of the traditional ethical theories. In Annette Baier's philosophical account "What Do Women Want in Moral Theory" (1985) she advises against discarding categories of obligation and says that one should make allowances for an ethic of love and trust, as well as human bonding and friendship. Gilligan questions traditional liberal theory and its emphasis on impartiality and universality. (Beauchamp and Childress)