Exploring women's development: implications for career theory, practice, and research

Abstract

Developmentally, women are different from men. The claim has surfaced so often, it can no longer be denied. Whether the charted gender differences have been framed as inherent female defects in biology (Freud, 1925), feminine deficiencies in reasoning (Kohlberg, 1976), learned responses to a political reality (French, 1985; Schaef, 1981), the recognition of a distinct developmental voice for men and women (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule, 1986; Gilligan, 1977), or cause for celebrating a new psychology of women (Miller, 1976), the theme is the same. Women construct their conceptions of themselves, their lives, and the world around them differently from men.