Carol
Gilligan
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from Women,
Power & Peace
 Carol
Gilligan, Ph.D., named
one of the
25 most influential
Americans in
1996 by Time Magazine,
has shown how
the inclusion
of women and
girls’ voices
changes the
paradigm of
psychology,
opening up
new ways of
thinking about
education and
mental health.
Her books include
In a Different
Voice, Meeting
at the Crossroads,
Between Voice
and Silence, and The
Birth of Pleasure. Together
with her students,
Gilligan founded
the Harvard
Project on
Women’s
Psychology
and Girls’ Development,
and in 1997,
she was appointed
to Harvard’s
first professorship
in gender studies.
Gilligan is
currently a
professor at
New York University.
But
it was when I
started working
with girls, that
I had the experience
that I had touched
the power...
I listened to
them...we found
we were hearing
something that
was at once familiar
and surprising.
It was something
we knew and it
was something
that we had come
to not know that
we knew. The
power, you see,
was in the force
behind that not
knowing. And
I touched it
with girls, and
then with young
boys. And when
I touched young
boys, then I
had really touched
the power.
I
learned how much
of what is said
about children,
who they are,
their stages,
is not true.
And the second
thing that I
learned is the
power to change
things, to transform
things, is basically
within all of
us...It is part
of our human
nature.
There
is a voice that
has colonized,
by the patriarchy,
creating stereotypes
of what is a
girl, or a "good
girl" or what
is a "real boy" and
that these are
overlays.
So
once you know
this, about boys,
about girls – then
you see there
the same potential
for resistance
to the patriarchal
gender stereotypes.
Here’s
the good news – like
we know about
the immune system
of the body – the
body resists
infection – the
psyche resists
infection and
disease, the
psyche resists
infection that
would divide
us from vital
parts of ourselves.
That would, in
the name of gender,
split mind from
body, thoughts
from emotion,
self from relationships,
and allocate
mind, self and
thought to men,
body, emotion
and relationship
to women – it
makes no sense.
There
is within us
a healthy resistance
to patriarchy.
In other words
there is within
us the grounds
for a truly democratic
society. But
to join the healthy
resistance of
the human psyche
to these kind
of psychic splits
that divide us
from vital part
of ourselves – to
join the healthy
resistance of
children means
to become involved
in a political
resistance. And
if we cannot
move forward
into that kind
of action, then
it’s very
hard to hold
onto these voices,
or even to access
them. We begin
to now know what
we know and we
buy into it.
Psychology has
largely bought
into the gender
stereotypes of
patriarchy.
So
feminism – my
definition – one
of the great
liberation movements
in human history – the “movement
to liberate democracy
from patriarchy” because
it’s a
movement that
unites women
and men, recognizing
the destructive
effect of patriarchy
on women and
men.
The
patriarchy has
a much greater
interest in the
induction of
the boy and it
only needs some
women. You have
a choice – you
can buy in...or
you can fall
off the edge
of the world
and they don’t
care what you
do. Which is
why activism
is such an issue,
since how do
you have a voice
without joining
them and taking
on their voice.
This
is something
we can all do,
whether we do
it within ourselves,
within our own
homes, with our
family, with
our children,
our grand-children,
which is to listen
for this voice,
in girls, in
boys and in ourselves.
It is an empowered
voice, and it
is a voice for
peace.
Join
the healthy resistance
of children.
I hope you’ll
take some of
this encouragement
to join that
resistance which
means doing that
work in yourself.
Interview with Carol Gilligan
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