Breaking the Bargain: Using Action Research to Operationalize Carol Gilligan’s Work on Girls’ Voices

• In Event: Youth and Student Voices From the Margins: Advocacy, Access, and Aspirations in the Education System

Abstract

Carol Gilligan’s groundbreaking 1992 book, Meeting at the Crossroads, changed the way scholars understood the development of adolescent girls. It also pointed toward new directions needed in K-12 education for girls to break out of White patriarchal mores. However, the work was not operationalized, and not much has changed in the way girls are educated. Girls are offered a bad bargain, where they must sacrifice their voice in order to have relationships. This paper examines how action research taken up at two girls schools operationalizes Gilligan’s work by showing girls that they can have a voice in school leadership and still have relationships. The result is a more democratic school structure, where girls’ voices become part of school leadership.

Authors

• Sarah Odell, The Hewitt School

• Denise Labieniec, The Winsor School