Carol Gilligan

Mauthner, NS

doi:10.4135/9781526421036834946

Carol Gilligan

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Natasha Mauthner ORCiD

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Abstract

Carol Gilligan is an internationally acclaimed North American feminist psychologist best known for her groundbreaking book In a Different Voice (1982) and its devastating critique of psychology’s androcentric theories and methods. She pioneered feminist analyses of developmental psychology by showing how models of “human” development were premised on a psychology that cast women as deviant and deficient in relation to an implicit male norm. Following the publication of In a Different Voice, Gilligan and her collaborators developed an innovative feminist voice-centred relational method of analysing interview narratives—the Listening Guide—designed to access voices and experiences marginalised by patriarchal cultures, theories, and methods. Gilligan argued that women and girls come under pressure to silence their voices and conform to gendered cultural norms. She saw the Listening Guide as a methodology that could unlock these suppressed voices and experiences. While Gilligan’s theoretical and methodological work has created controversy for appearing to essentialise gender identities, it has been deeply influential within psychology, education, gender studies, and further afield. It has earned her wide recognition and has had a lasting impact on the feminist movement.