Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

152 WHO STOLE FEMINISM?voked her authority in promoting its findings. She is in the video. Accordingto the New York Times, she was also "an advisor on thedevelopment of questions asked in the survey." 49In her influential book In a Different Voice, Gilligan claims that womenhave special ways of dealing with moral dilemmas; she maintains that,being more caring, less competitive, less abstract, and more sensitive thanmen in making moral decisions, women speak "in a different voice." Sheargues that their culture of nurturing and caring and their habits ofpeaceful accommodation could be the salvation of a world governed byhypercompetitive males and their habits of abstract moral reasoning. Shehas since argued that our society silences, denigrates, and squelches women'svoices and that this often causes serious pathologies. Her recent workhas placed her at the center of the self-esteem movement.Gilligan's standing is generally higher among gender feminist intellectualsthan among scholars at large. As her general popularity has skyrocketed,her reputation as a researcher has been attacked. Professionally,Gilligan is a social psychologist concentrating on moral development. But,for want of empirical evidence, she has failed to convince many of herpeers of the validity of her theories. Wendy Wood, the specialist inwomen's psychology at Texas A&M, voices a considered judgment sharedby many professionals in the field of women's psychology: "Independentresearch in moral psychology has not confirmed [Gilligan's] findings."On the contrary, independent research tends to disconfirm Gilligan'sthesis that there is a substantive difference in the moral psychology ofmen and women. Lawrence Walker of the University of British Columbiahas reviewed 108 studies on gender difference in solving moral dilemmas.He concludes, "Sex differences in moral reasoning in late adolescence andyouth are rare." 50William Damon (Brown University) and Anne Colby(Radcliffe College) point out that though males are viewed as more analyticaland independent, and women more empathetic and tactful, thereis little evidence to support these stereotypes: "There is very little supportin the psychological literature for the notion that girls are more aware ofothers' feelings or are more altruistic than boys. Sex differences in empathyare inconsistently found and are generally very small when they arereported." 51In The Mismeasure of Woman, the psychologist Carol Tavris reviews theliterature on sex differences and moral development. Her assessmentechoes Walker's, Wood's, Damon's, and Colby's. Tavris says, "In studyafter study, researchers report no average differences in the kind of moralreasoning that men and women apply." 52Tavris rejects the "woman is