Human development, as described in generally accepted psychological literature, consistently portrays women as deficient or inferior to men. Normal psychological and moral development has been based on studies of men that goes back at least to Freud (p. 6) at the beginning of this century and culminates in the late sixties with studies by Kohlberg and Erikson. Agreeing with Piaget, that a developmental theory . . . hangs from its vertex of maturity, the point toward which progress is traced (p. 18), Gilligan argues that a change in the definition of maturity does not simply alter the description of the highest stage but recasts the understanding of development, changing the entire accountS (p. 19).

A change in developmental theories of human psychological and moral behavior is needed because the repeated findings of these studies . . . [by researchers such as Kohlberg] . . . is that the qualities deemed necessary for adulthood . . . are those associated with masculinity and considered undesirable as attributes of the feminine self (p. 17). Gilligan's aim is to provide . . . a clearer representation of women's development which will enable psychologists and others to follow its course and understand some of the apparent puzzles it presents, especially those that pertain to women's identity formation and their moral development in adolescence and adulthood (p. 3).

Combining a thorough literature review with the findings of three studies, Gilligan describes two distinct voices in the human discussion of morality and identity. A five-year study was based on interviews of women in college and after they had graduated. The second study was based on interviews of women from the ages of 15 to 33 from diverse ethnic and social status backgrounds conducted when these women were considering an abortion and one year later. The hypotheses generated by these studies concerning different modes of thinking about morality and their relation to different views of self were further explored and refined through the _rights and responsibility study_ (p.3). This final study matched men and women from the ages of six to 60 for age, intelligence, education, and social class and included interviews on topics of self, morality, moral conflict, choice, and judgments of hypothetical dilemmas.

Two distinct voices address the issues of identity and morality. One voice describes a justice perspective. This perspective bases moral judgment on universal laws that protect the rights of individuals equally, which in this perspective means without regard to personal or extenuating circumstances. This voice speaks for those who accept autonomy and active, instrumental ability as the right of each individual. This voice describes rules and laws as necessary to control others who want to impede individual progress and to provide an even playing field for competition. This is the dominant voice heard by Gilligan and is most often associated with males.

The second voice describes a care perspective. This perspective relies on a sense of relationship in context, an interconnectedness of all the people involved in a moral dilemma. The right to property and the right to life are weighed not in the abstract, in terms of their logical priority, but in the particular, in terms of the actual consequences that the violation of these rights will have in the lives of the people involved (p.95). The only universal spoken of by this voice is its condemnation of exploitation and hurt (p. 74). This voice is most often associated with females.

Gilligan does not clearly distinguish between sex and gender and never addresses how much impact culture or biology have in the expression of these two voices. Gilligan's results accommodate a wider range of human behavior than that of previous theories and research. Simply put, she says that males tend to value autonomy at a very young age, while females value relationship. Maturity for males requires an integration of the notion of intimacy into their identity and the value of relationship. Female maturation requires including themselves as a separate human being deserving the same care that they have given to others. Both voices offer something to each other. The discovery now being celebrated by men in mid-life of the importance of intimacy, relationships, and care is something that women have known from the beginning (p. 17).Women's maturation depends on understanding the essential notion of rights, that the interests of the self can be considered legitimate (p. 149).

This book offers a theoretical framework to explain human development in terms that are more descriptive and positive than prescriptive and focused on deficits. It can be included in discussions on the benefits of diversity, because the two voices that Gilligan identifies compliment one another and can only mature when each includes the other. Psychologically and morally mature human beings will include considerations of both justice and care in their decisions.