Bio: (1936-) American psychologist. Carol Gilligan received her Ph.D. and taught clinical psychology at Harvard University. In her works, she studies gender order. She observed the gender order from a psychological perspective. In her book In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (1982) Gilligan criticized theories of the stages of moral development of Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg, as too male-oriented. Gilligan, instead, believes that women's gender identity develops through personal relationships, while men's gender identity develops through separation and autonomy.

This way of developing one's self and identity affects the differences in morals between women and men. These differences are most pronounced in moments when there are moral dilemmas. Women develop ethics and morals focused on caring for others and maintaining personal relationships; while men develop ethics focused on justice and individual rights issues. Both ethical approaches are key to maintaining morality in society, as they form the basis for political and social change. Gilligan also believes that patriarchy, in addition to representing a hierarchical system, forces people to focus on heterosexual love relationships, and influences them to neglect other forms of human connection. She calls her approach to the relationship between gender identities and ethics "development of voice". She also studies topics of ethnicity and ethnic relations.

Main works

In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (1982);  

Mapping the Moral Domain: A Contribution of Women’s Thinking to Psychological Theory and Education (1988);

Making Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School (1990);

Women, Girls, and Psychotherapy: Reframing Resistance (1991);

The Birth of Pleasure (2002).