To its discredit, Harvard University has accepted a major donation earmarked for advancing the trendy but shoddy scholarship of a controversial gender theorist. Its purpose is to advance the research of Carol Gilligan, the celebrated professor of gender studies at Harvard s School of Education. Ms. Gilligan is understandably elated by Ms. Fonda s praise and generosity. Although both women were thrilled, this is a gift Harvard should have rejected. Ms. Gilligan, a developmental psychologist, established her reputation in the 1980s by claiming that men and women reason differently about morality.
Men are more abstract, women more caring and flexible.
Many feminists were tantalized by the idea that women were different from men, and possibly morally superior to them. Colleagues, including a number of feminist academics, like Faye Crosby at the University of Santa Cruz and Zella Luria at Tufts, have asked that Ms. Gilligan produce some genuine evidence for her sweeping claims. She has yet to do so, preferring to say, in answer to her critics, that thousands of readers resonate to her message. Girls who are outspoken and spirited at age nine become silent and withdrawn as they enter adolescence. Boys suffer as much or worse, but at an even earlier age.