Educational Psychology / Unit 3 EDP 0273 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Justice, Care and the Evidence on Gender
The idea
Gilligan's work began as a critique of Kohlberg. She argued that a morality of justice, centered on rights and rules, left out a morality of care, centered on relationships and responsibility. The claim often attached to her critique is that women score at lower Kohlberg stages than men, and that women reason mainly from care while men reason from justice. The evidence does not bear that out. Walker's critical review of the research found little difference between the sexes in Kohlberg scores. Jaffee and Hyde's meta-analysis found only small differences in moral orientation, a slight lean toward care among females and toward justice among males, and concluded that the findings do not strongly support the idea that care belongs mainly to women and justice mainly to men.
In practice
Worked example: a teacher must decide whether to give a student extra time on an assignment after a family crisis. A justice reading asks what is fair to every student under the same rule. A care reading asks what this student needs and what the relationship requires. The same tension appears when a teacher gives everyone equal reading time, or more time to those who need it. Either kind of reasoning can come from any student, of any gender.
Where people slip
Teach Gilligan's point, that care is a real moral orientation which Kohlberg's scoring could miss, without the gender claim that often travels with it. The measured difference between the sexes is small, both orientations appear in both sexes, and a classroom dilemma calls on both. Presenting care as the female way of reasoning turns a contested claim into a stereotype about how women and men think.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Educational Psychology