Carol Gilligan does an excellent job in taking the works of theorist’s Kohlberg and Erikson in development pshychology and expanding on it to include women’s experience. She began writing the book in the 1970’s a time in which the women’s movement was at a forefront of our society.
The book includes the research and interviews that support the need for women’s voices to be heard in society. Gilligan explores the theories of moral and emotional development and outlines three stages of moral development. The book focuses three themes; Voice, Difference and Women’s and Men’s Development.
The book is pretty small with only six chapters and 174 pages. It opens with a letter written ten years after the first publication. This letter is the only change to the book when it was reprinted in 1983 and the story in a different voice remains unchanged. It is considered to be a classic in its own right considering the changes in our society from the 1970s to today in the area of women’s inclusion in society.
I did find parts of the book to be very dense but to me that is to be expected when it comes to psychology and the discussion of theories. Overall, it was a good read. The interviews and discussions were extremely interesting and I felt that the validation in research and linkage to the theories mentioned very strong.
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