Care and Justice: The Influence of Gendertyping in Moral Development

I faced many unique individual challenges that shaped who I currently am as an adult. I was raised primarily by my father during the 19880's. My parents have been divorced since my age was still counted in months. I was raised by my father because my mother lost custody of me. My dad was not very good at raising me like a "girl," and I am eternally grateful for that. I did not play with normative girl toys. I did however have a pretty amazing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collection that would make any enthusiast drool.

As I read Gilligan's take on Kohlberg's stages of moral development I could not help but reminisce to my childhood. I was the only girl at school that did not like dolls. I wish to clarify that I did indeed have dolls I just was never drawn to them. I never felt any sort of need to play mom and take care of a baby doll. I fear I may never have that "Motherly instinct." I think I do not personally have a continuum of care and justice. I think I have a teeter totter of care and justice and I sit on the justice side all by myself.

That feeling of lonely inadequacy came rushing back to me reading Gilligan's analysis. I exist on a level morality that values people. I however, do not feel that this has anything to do with the emotion of care. I think that I have such an overwhelming sense of justice that it subsumes the emotion of care. I also see care as a digression of women focusing too much on irrational emotion. I feel that there is some sexism within Gilligan's approach that makes it seem as if women are in a battling individual dialectic of the masculine and feminine. The fact that gender enforcement is so entrenched in Western society possibly explains why there is difficulty in finding the universal link amongst different cultures in this respect.

I would actually argue that Kohlberg offers a more generalizable worldview to understand for a teaching/ student professional career to use. I might feel this way because I would potentially score high on Kohlberg's moral assessment. I see how Kohlberg and Perry's views of moral development and intellectual development come into play. In order for someone to reach Kohlberg's highest level of moral development they would need to have had the complete intellectual development. There is a reason why education is so important and why it is an essential privilege to master in order for success in Western society. I think this is due to the fact that we value those that have a societal ethic and moralistic perspective that is accessable to many people. People that score lower on the Kohlberg moral sense probably have not completely intellectually developed in Perry's frame.