Carol Gilligan may not be a household name for most Americans. But school psychologist Bill Cole hopes to change that, one middle-schooler at a time.
This Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, Cole will speak at the Morristown & Township Library about his new book, Carol Gilligan and the Search for Voice.
Gilligan, now 88, is a pioneering psychologist and feminist thinker whose groundbreaking research revolutionized the understanding of moral development. In the 1960s, she began questioning why psychological studies overwhelmingly focused on white men and boys.
Her 1982 work, In a Different Voice, challenged prevailing norms, positing that men often rely on an ethic of justice, while women emphasize an ethic of care. It was, according to Harvard University Press, “the little book that started a revolution.”
Cole, 55, legislative chair for the Morris School District teachers’ union and adjunct professor of developmental psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, has long admired Gilligan’s work.
“I remember being taken by her ideas and writings while in college,” he tells Morristown Green. “In general, I am really drawn to public thinkers who almost single-handedly change the direction of a given field.”
Gilligan did just that, he says, by shining a light on one of psychology’s most pervasive historical biases.
Cole’s biography, illustrated by Sarah Green and published by Magination Press, is part of the Extraordinary Women in Psychology series.
Aimed at middle- and high school students, Carol Gilligan and the Search for Voice is “a highly readable and powerful volume” that can help readers understand their own development, writes The School Library Journal.
Gilligan’s influence extends beyond psychology. Her research inspired the federal Gender Equity Education Act of 1994, and even influenced the creation of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, Cole says.
He credits her with helping advance social-emotional learning in schools.
“As much as any one person, she helped change the conversation to ‘What do young people need?’ Yes, they need math, reading, and writing. But they also need all this other stuff in the emotional realm,” says Cole, a graduate of Drew University and the Columbia Teachers College.
Cole conceived the book, his first, during the pandemic, seeing an opportunity to bring Gilligan’s story to a new generation.
“She’s still very sharp, very active,” Cole says.
Gilligan, who teaches at New York University, says Cole did a “terrific job” on her biography.
“He totally got my work, and I was hugely impressed…I thought making my work accessible in this way to young adult readers was a real contribution, and I very much appreciate the intelligence he brought to it,” Gilligan says.
She is one brave academic. Early in her tenure at Harvard, Gilligan challenged two giants of psychology, Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg, on their male-centered research. She revealed how they, like most psychologists at the time, excluded women and girls.
Her findings led to a broader recognition of diverse perspectives, and the importance of incorporating both sides of the coin–male and female — when studying human development and education.
Cole’s talk, set for 7 p.m. at One Miller Road in Morristown, is free. The snow date is Jan. 15.
The library says Carol Gilligan and the Search for Voice gives teens and their parents a chance to learn about a seminal psychologist — and to “consider the power of their own voices as they move forward in their lives.”
For Cole, the book is more than a biography; it’s a call to action. Thought and emotion count.
“I want to…encourage students to think about their own perspectives, tendencies, and relationships, particularly related to their voices and sense of who they are.”
