Gender differences in moral reasoning

Gender and Perceived Fundamental Moral Orientations: An Empirical Study of the Turkish Hotel Industry

“…Our findings are also consistent with prior research indicating that women and men use both the care and justice ethics in resolving ethical dilemmas (Gilligan and Attanucci, 1988;Rothbart et al, 1986;Thoma, 1986;Walker, 1984Walker, , 1986Walker et al, 1987). Because the respondents' perceptions differ significantly but not dramatically from the scale midpoint, both men and women would be placed within the self-fullness range of the scale (i.e., the middle third of the scale).…”

“…Some research has supported Gilligan's gender differentiation in moral reasoning (e.g., Johnston, 1985;Peter and Gallup, 1994). However, other research has indicated that men and women use both the care and justice ethics in resolving ethical dilemmas -and sometimes with no difference between the two genders in terms of the frequency of use (Gilligan and Attanucci, 1988;Rothbart et al, 1986;Thoma, 1986;Walker, 1984Walker, , 1986Walker et al, 1987). Yet another study suggests that women rely on an ethic of justice in resolving ethical dilemmas in the workplace (Hopkins and Bilimoria, 2004).…”

Victims' Responses to traumatic life events: An unjust world or an uncaring world?

“…It should be noted that Kohlberg reported finding that men tended to score at Stage 4, where "right" is consistent with respect for laws and fulfillment of duties, whereas women tended to score at Stage 3, labeled "Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships, and Conformity" (Kohlberg, 1981(Kohlberg, ). et al, 1984Pratt, Golding, Hunter, and Norris, 1988;Rothbart et al, 1986;Walker et al, 1987). Although one study found that women and men may differ in the consistency of their respective use of care and justice orientations (Ford and Lowery, 1986), both orientations have been found to characterize the moral judgments of both women and men.…”

The Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure of Moral Orientation

“…With the increased attention being paid to moral orientation, a series of researchers argued that the content of the moral dilemmas presented to participants could have a large impact on the moral orientations used by these participants when solving the dilemmas (Rothbart, Hanley, & Albert, 1986). Initially, it was suggested that perhaps the sex of the protagonist in the scenario could account for some variance in responses (Holstein, 1976).…”