Gilligan

What are the differences between men and women in terms of the way they regard relationships?

Gilligan writes that men and woman determine their roles in society based upon certain factors of early childhood development. Gilligan argues that men will be more successful than woman because of their competitiveness. She claims this will be because at an early age males were involved in games with rules and girls were concerned with relationships. “Men show such readiness to adopt and celebrate a rather narrow vision of success” (Gilligan 810). Gilligan also argued that men were more dominant and independent than woman. She stated this was because men parted from their mothers unlike woman. I don’t know whether I disagree or agree with Gilligan on this issue. On a case to case basis more woman are attached to their mothers than men. But I think the masculinity comes from other factors not from being separated from their mother’s arms. As I was reading her context, I got the impression that she had a different viewpoint on feminism than the other writers in this section. She to wrote about the way women are mistreated in society, but she didn’t really suggest a solution to stop it from continuing.
This reading was very interesting and I believe some of the theories in Gilligan’s readings were poorly thought out. Although I do agree with Gilligan that if a girl was raised from an early age to be self-reliant, then she would grow up to be a strong, independent woman. I enjoyed reading Gilligan.

Works Cited

Gilligan, Carol. “Woman’s Place in Man’s life Cycle.” A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for College Writers. Ed. Lee A Jacobus.7th Ed. New York; Bedford St. Martins, 2006. Pp 801-817.