
How Marriage Changed My View of Men
Article here. Excerpt:
'Some even attempt to formalize theories supporting this claim about men's lacking morality. Feminist Carol Gilligan, for example, is well known for arguing in her influential book In a Different Voice that women deal differently with moral dilemmas than men. Women, she claims, are more caring, less competitive, less abstract, and more sensitive than men in making moral decisions. Because they speak in this “different voice,” their culture of nurturing, caring, and peaceful accommodation could cure the world governed by hyper-competitive males and their habits of abstract, less interpersonal moral reasoning.
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Not according to Lawrence Walker of the University of British Columbia. Walker has reviewed 80 studies on gender difference in solving moral dilemmas and determines that “[s]ex differences in moral reasoning in late adolescence and youth are rare.” Additionally, three researchers at Oberlin College attempted to test Gilligan’s hypothesis, administering a moral reasoning test to one hundred male and female students. Their conclusion: “There were no reliable sex differences [. . .] in the directions predicted by Gilligan.” Other findings by Wendy Wood, a specialist in women’s psychology at Texas A&M, and William Damon (Brown University) and Anne Colby (Radcliffe College) further undermine these negative stereotypes.'
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