Major Contributions, Awards, and Honors
Gilligan was a prolific writer and published many novels along with her works on psychological theory. Her most famous book is "In a Different Voice". It is a book on gender studies and is known as "the little book that started a revolution". In the book, Gilligan criticizes the theories of Mark Kohlberg. Kohlberg says that girls reach an overall lower level of moral development than boys. For her criticism, Gilligan is said to be a "feminist psychologist". In her book, Gilligan takes into account both men and women and that men are generally more "justice" oriented and that women are more caring. (http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/hhd2005/WinterDownloads/TongCh5.pdf)
In 1996, Gilligan was one of TIME's most influential people.
In 1996, Gilligan was one of TIME's most influential people.
Images of Self
Gilligan's career mostly consisted of criticizing Kohlberg's work and working to prove him wrong. When she used Kolhberg's model, she found that it set up psychology to think of both women and men as only men. She voiced her opinions that men think in a more "rule- oriented" way and that women act according to caring emotions and relationships and that society to value both equally.(http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/gilligan.html) Gilligan said there are 3 stages to the maturity of a woman. The pre-conventional where the woman feels alone in a hostile world, the conventional, where the woman becomes self-sacrificing, and the post conventional where the woman tends to take control of her life. (https://lms.manhattan.edu/pluginfile.php/26517/mod_resource/content/1/Gilligan%20In%20a%20Different%20Voice.pdf)
Criticism
Gilligan's theories are known as "ethical" theories. Many ethical theorists don't agree with Gilligan because she has developed a sort of double standard for men and women because she suggests that they are on completely different planes of moral development.