trying to explain the different moral reasoning of women and girls

as a reaction to studies that said women were less morally developed that men because they did not apply abstract rules/priniciples in making moral decisions

Kohlberg’s scale of moral development begins with infant – totally dependent upon others

development = becoming independent, disconnected from others

the morally mature adult makes decisions based on rules and abstractions (e.g. lying is bad, stealing is bad what to do if your wife is dying and needs medicine – do you steal to get her the medicine?)

 Girls different – conditional, relative
 view dilemmas in the context of relationships

332 – resist hypothetical dilemmas that divest moral actors from their context, history, social conditions;  insist on the particular

 
Gilligan’s experiments – listens to women reason about decision about having an abortion

not an abstract process for them

situated in the particularity of their lives
and circumscribed by feelings they have internalized about “good” women = someone who cares for others, responsibility

An ethics of care