Gender and psychology

In this chapter, we explore two legendary approaches to the understanding of gender differences. Carol Gilligan’s research on women argued that they undergo a different course of moral development compared to men. The highest level they achieve valorizes connectedness and interpersonal sensitivity. The apex of male development is a sense of abstract justice, which leaves men isolated from each other and from women. The evolutionary approach acknowledges dramatic gender differences but approaches them with a Darwinian emphasis on sexual selection. The movement to recognize unique female development was associated with what Sommers called “the war against boys”. We also update the relative academic achievements of males and females as well as their exposure to risky behavior (suicide) and outline the attempts of evolutionary theorists to argue against the deterministic suppositions of theories based in biological differences. Both approaches seem to admit the autonomy of individuals and their ability to transcend deterministic processes of development at the individual and the species levels.