Women's rights and judgment

July 23, 2012-Women’s rights and women’s judgment

Gilligan takes a look in this chapter and the social issues that framed women’s right’s movement and ultimately women’s social issues. She ponders the affects that Seneca Falls, and social reforms such as; social purity movement and temperance and the 60’s with free love and ultimately birth control had on the development of women’s rights and judgments.

Obviously she felt that education for women was the key to their development. She felt that there was a puzzling aspect to why women didn’t support other women in the equal rights movement and finally in the women’s movement as a whole.

She felt that ultimately women struggled with the idea of selfishness and the moral debate of self- sacrifice that women felt they were obligated to do. Gilligan (1998) felt that when women recognized the  “…rightness of her decision but also realizing its painful consequences, she can see no way to maintain her integrity while adhering to an ethic of care in relationships. Seeking to avoid conflict and compromise in choice by ‘just doing what is right for you’, she is in fact left with a feeling of compromise about herself.” (p. 135).Once again the main theme of relationship and care for it as primary is evident. Women struggle with the need to balance selflessness and responsibility. Quite often she feels the need to justify her decisions and actions. When this dilemma becomes too strong she is often left paralyzed and unable to make any decision. She actually fees torn between the need to be true to herself and the feeling that she will inadvertently hurt someone else.

Gilligan believes that when a woman can finally discover that there is not any one true right or wrong, but different variances of both, she will truly be able to become a better functioning individual. She feels that once women understand that by being true to themselves they become a better individual will they learn to view themselves as morally right and just.