In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development

Carol Gilligan

Book cover

A quick read and highly recommended. This book is Gilligan’s response to years of academic study of moral development that had “just happened” to focus solely on males. Her critique is devastating and it is almost unbelievable that so much work was done with such a clear gender bias. Gilligan sets out a very believable “parallel path” of women’s development that, satisfyingly, converges toward the same major issues that men struggle with, but from a different direction. I always like reading books with extensive oral interviews with “regular people”, where much of the author’s work is simply to allow people to speak for themselves. She is not quite Studs Terkel in this dimension, but I think this is an inspiring piece of qualitative research nonetheless.

My Goodreads rating: 4 stars

IndieBound