From Book News, Inc.
<:;st> New printing of the 1982 edition (which is cited in BCL3) with a new (18 p.) Letter to Readers by the author. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

ANNOTATION

Carol Gilligan believes that psychology has persistently and systematically misunderstood women. Repeatedly, developmental theories have been built on observations of men's lives. Here, Gilligan attempts to correct psychology's misperceptions and refocus its view of female personality. The result reshapes our understanding of human experience.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Carol Gilligan believes that psychology has persistently and systematically misunderstood women--their motives, their moral commitments, the course of their psychological growth, and their special view of what is important in life. Here she sets out to correct psychology's misperceptions and refocus its view of female personality. The result is truly a tour de force, which may well reshape much of what psychology now has to say about female experience.

In a Different Voice begins with an indictment psychologists from Freud to Piaget have made a muddle and a mystery of female psychology by trying to treat women as if they were men. Repeatedly, developmental theories have been built on observations of men's lives. When women fail to develop in the way men do, the conclusion is that something may be wrong with women. Gilligan concludes, instead, that something must be wrong with theory. If, for example, male development is mainly a matter of increasing separation from others to achieve autonomy and independence, does that mean that women have failed to grow into mature adults if their development involves a continuing and unresolved struggle to balance their responsibilities to others with their commitment to themselves? If men see morality chiefly as a matter of impartial justice, are women less moral if they see morality more as a matter of care? If men are willing to sacrifice relationships with others in pursuit of achievement, are women wrong to sacrifice achievements to preserve relationships?

Gilligan's answers to these questions take her well beyond negative criticisms of existing theory; they give substance to her own view of female personality and round out aportrait of human nature that has too long been one-sided. Built on a careful hearing of many voices--some historical, some literary, but mostly those of the contemporary men and women Gilligan interviewed--In a Different Voice rises above narrow disputes over sex differences to make a deeper assessment of what it is to be human.

FROM THE CRITICS

Ms.Magazine.com

In her book In a Different Voice, Carol Gilligan demonstrates that men and women speak in 'different voices.' Through research, Gilligan has found that psychological development theories repeatedly have been built on observations of men￯﾿ﾽs lives, thus creating misperceptions of women.

Booknews

**** New printing of the 1982 edition (which is cited in BCL3) with a new (18 p.) Letter to Readers by the author. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Carol Tavris - New York Times Book Review

Theories of moral development are not mere abstractions. They matter - to the way children are raised, to female and male self-esteem... and that is why Carol Gilligan's book is important.... In a Different Voice is constantly provocative and imaginative.

Alfie Cohn - Boston Globe

Gilligan's book is feminism at its best... Her thesis is needed not only in research but in common sense... Theories of human development are never more limiting than when their bias is invisible, and Gilligan's book performs the vital service of illuminating one of the deepest biases of all.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING