Back in 1982 Dr. Carol Gilligan, an Associate Professor of Education at Harvard University published this ground-breaking book, In A Different Voice.
In it she sought to trace and focus the different ethical perspectives between young boys and young girls. She suggested that when it comes to moral questions girls, and thus perhaps women as well, think and feel differently from boys and men. She had done extensive study of numerous young people of both genders in order to highlight these differences.
Gilligan’s central assumption was “That the way people talk about their lives is of significance, that the language they use and the connections they make reveal the world that they see and in which they act.” (p.2) Gilligan had studied and worked with well-known socio-psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg as a graduate student at Harvard and in her work there she began to question Kohlberg’s work on human moral development because as it turned out all of his studies had involved only young men. The major result of Kohlberg’s work was the conclusion that young males’ sense of morality is primarily based on a sense of rights and obligations, much as it is studied in philosophy and religion classes.
On the other hand, according to Gilligan’s empirical studies with young girls, a young girl might respond by first asking about the circumstances of the posed situation. She might ask if there are no other ways for obtaining the needed drug. She might ask not whether one should steal the drug, but what other options might there be to solving the difficult situation other than stealing. In short, Gilligan found that by and large young girls took a broader perspective on such issues in order to avoid both of the proposed possible scenarios. Where Kohlberg’s analysis offered only two options here, Gilligan’s analysis broadened the scope of the issue to not only include but to begin with more contextual questions about what is involved and why.
Repeatedly Gilligan found that in such situations, young girls always began by asking questions that would bring out more details and thus more possibilities. She describes this difference as that between coming at the issue contextuality or with categorical thinking. To put it differently, between what is categorically “right” and what is contextually “best” or most helpful. Gilligan concluded that whereas men generally try to determine what is “right” or “wrong” thing to do in the situation, focusing on rules, etc. women generally approach the situation by focusing on the relationships involved and how to fulfill them.
Throughout her very insightful book Gilligan offers numerous examples, both from real life and creative literature, of this sort of difference, but the case which strikes me the as the most clear and powerful is that of the dilemma confronting the rabbits who have offered to share their nest with a porcupine but soon find out that whenever the porcupine moves some rabbit gets stuck. The dilemma then is whether to find some form of compromise or to ban the porcupine from the nest.
This dilemma reminds me of what we who play pick-up basketball must often do when there are no referees. We make adjustments for the guy who keeps committing a double-dribble, or the clumsy guy who inadvertently fouls people. The responsible thing to do, assuming we want to continue to play together in such cases is not cart blanch follow the rules, but to bend the rules a bit so that we can continue to play together. Of course, such “bending” will have to have limits.
The crucial point is that in order to live together our “morality” must take into account various important differences of situation: male and female, black and white, poor and rich, young and elderly. If we are going to live together our ethics must be able to “bend” a bit here and there. I think this is what Gilligan meant by her title: “In a Different Voice”, a voice that seeks to find solutions for complicated situations without necessitating bringing our game to an end. We usually tried taking turns taking the ball out of bounds. This issue is not easy, but it’s crucial for our life together. ANY QUESTIONS OR OBSERVATIONS?