Beautiful Minds: Carol Gilligan

Episode Summary

Carol Gilligan was an influential psychologist who studied moral development and ethics of care. She was born in 1936 in New York City and attended progressive schools. Gilligan earned degrees from Swarthmore College, Radcliffe College, and Harvard. In the 1960s, she taught at the University of Chicago while pursuing dance and civil rights activism. At Harvard, Gilligan studied under theorists Kohlberg and Erikson but noticed their research only included boys. She interviewed girls who dropped Kohlberg's classes and found they had a distinct moral perspective based on relationships and care for others. In 1982, Gilligan published the groundbreaking book In a Different Voice, which presented an alternative to male-focused developmental theory. Her work launched the ethics of care feminist movement. Gilligan earned academic honors including Harvard tenure and chaired professorships. She inspired new perspectives in psychology, though some critique her gender generalizations. Overall, Gilligan gave women's voices more prominence in the formerly male-dominated field.

Episode Show Notes

Carol Gilligan (1936-present), is a psychologist, author, professor, and activist.

Episode Transcript

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Let's talk about Carol Gilligan. SPEAKER_00: Carol Gilligan was born in New York City on November 28th, 1936. In her childhood, she attended the Progressive Walden School in Manhattan. By 1958, she earned a BA in literature with highest honors from Swarthmore College. She then pursued a master's degree in clinical psychology from Radcliffe and a PhD in social psychology from Harvard. After graduating from Harvard in the mid-1960s, Carol taught psychology at the University of Chicago. During that time, she married a medical student, had her first child, pursued modern dance, and advocated for civil rights. Carol joined other teachers in a protest against the Vietnam War by refusing to turn in grades that would jeopardize a student's draft status. In 1967, Carol started teaching at Harvard. There, she worked with Eric Erickson and Lawrence Kohlberg, two renowned developmental psychologists. Though she was intrigued by their work, she noticed that Kohlberg only used boys as research subjects, as did almost all psychological researchers at the time. At that point, there were very few women enrolled in Kohlberg's class. Half of them ended up dropping the course. Carol tracked down the women who left the class and studied their concept of moral perspective, hoping to find a common thread. She started writing down her findings in 1975 and published her first paper on the subject, titled, In a Different Voice, Women's Conception of Self and Morality. After some debate, the Harvard Educational Review published it. In 1982, Carol published a full book based on further developmental studies in girls called, In a Different Voice, Psychological Theory and Women's Development. The book acted as a counterpoint to Kohlberg's male-focused research, which claimed that women didn't usually develop moral judgment at the highest levels. In her book, Carol argued that girls develop morals in a pattern distinct from men, based more on relationships and a desire to care for others. Her research evolved into a feminist movement known as the ethics of care. Her work suggests that the best way to realize your potential is to integrate the individualistic male perspective and the caring female perspective. Carol's work earned her significant academic recognition. She received tenure at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1988, then taught at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 1994, as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions. She also became the Patricia Alber Graham Chair in Gender Studies at Harvard in 1997. Her work is even credited by some for inspiring the passage of the 1994 Gender Equity in Education Act. Some feminist scholars contest Carol's work, claiming that generalizations about moral development in men and women are actually socially constructed. Still, Carol Gilligan's influence on the feminist perspective in psychology is undeniable. She introduced more women's voices into what used to be a more exclusive conversation. As always, we're taking a break for the weekend. Tune in on Monday to hear about another beautiful mind. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you on Monday. SPEAKER_05: There's no payments until 2024 on approved credit. Over 15,000 satisfied customers on Google had a five-star experience with Dibella. For your home improvement projects, check out the award-winning pros at iHeart.Dibella.us, where quality begins at home. When you're an American Express Platinum card member, SPEAKER_06: don't be surprised if you say things like, Chef, what course are we on? SPEAKER_01: I've lost count. Or, Shoot that, shoot that! SPEAKER_01: And even, Checkout's not until four, so. 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