Question

Psychologist Carol Gilligan, in her book In a Different Voice, argues that women tend to define themselves more in terms of caring relationships with others, whereas men tend to think of themselves more individualistically. Based on your experience, is that true? If so, what implications might it have in thinking about engineering ethics? After posting, return to the board and read over the posts of your fellow classmates. Choose at least one classmate and create a post responding to his/her initial post on the Discussion Board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_9MozRoKE

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Carol Gilligan bases her statement on an incident with her students and how the men in the class were not open to talking about the Vietnam War as compared to women. This is because they had individualistic approaches and perceptions of the war. Furthermore, Gilligan says that her understanding was more focused only after actually discussing issues with women.

Men she says try to find the right thing to do and women find the better thing to do. Considering that women are more caring of other’s needs Gilligan feels that the rules of society should include the thoughts and temperament of both the men and women of society. Gilligan states that the implications should be evident in the paradigm of ethics, which should be accommodating of both, the perspectives of men and of women.

Considering social experiences, it is observable that the reason why women are more considerate, emotional and even social because of the connection they establish with other people simply through consideration or compassion. Men on the other hand might be compassionate as well, however, they maintain a more idealistic approach and not always a collective or emotional one.