Chapter 51: The Ethic of Care: Theory and Research

In her famed book, In a Different Voice, Carol Gilligan (1982) connected the recurrent problems in interpreting women’s development to the repeated omission of women from the critical theory-building studies of psychological research. She put forth a critique of Kohlberg, pointing out that in the research from which Kohlberg derived his theory on the development of justice-based moral thought, females simply were excluded. Consequently, Gilligan claimed, Kohlberg’s model and measurement are insensitive to women’s voice or views on moral issues, with the result that men typically score higher in their moral reasoning levels on Kohlberg’s justice measure.

In this chapter, Gilligan’s theory of two distinctive sex-related moral orientations, care and justice, is briefly expounded, followed by a review of the empirical evidence regarding her allegations and some critiques of her theorizing. In the final section, Skoe’s Ethic of Care Interview, which assesses Gilligan’s proposed developmental levels of care reasoning, and research findings with use of this instrument are presented.