Carol Gilligan’s 1982 book, In a Different Voice, is described by Harvard University Press as “the little book that started a revolution.” It made women’s voices heard in their own right and with their own integrity for virtually the first time in the social sciences. Translated into 17 languages with more than three-quarters of a million copies sold, it continues to inspire political debate, new research and initiatives in policy and education as well as help many women and men see each other in a new light.

One of TIME magazine’s 25 most influential Americans, Gilligan was the first holder of the Graham Professorship of Gender Studies at Harvard. In 1998 she received the prestigious Heinz Award for her contributions to understanding the human condition.
 
Following In a Different Voice, Gilligan founded the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girls Development, co-authoring and co-editing five books with her students, including Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development and Between Voice and Silence: Women and Girls, Race and Relationship.

Her latest book, The Birth of Pleasure, also has been called “revolutionary.” In this “brilliant, compassionate, flame-like book,” Gilligan ignites a new conversation about love. She asks why we relive tragic stories of loss and betrayal; she shows how these stories go back to the beginnings of civilization and are rooted in the tension between democracy and patriarchy — as it plays out in our public world and also in our most intimate lives. Her groundbreaking research with man/woman couples in crisis, adolescent girls, and young boys and their parents forms the basis for a new map of love and relationships.
 

She captivated a standing room audience of students, faculty and lay people with her gifted ability to get a strong and powerful message across in a personal manner.

Kent State University

On National Public Radio, The Birth of Pleasure was described as the work of “a psychologist who writes like a novelist.” Combining ancient myths and legends with the voices of those who participate in her research, Gilligan draws on the work of Shakespeare and Freud, Michael Ondaatje and Toni Morrison, to illustrate critical points on her map. The book’s title comes from the Psyche and Cupid myth, which ends with the birth of a daughter named Pleasure.

Her first play, a critically-acclaimed adaptation of Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter, debuted in 2002.

In January 2008, Random House will publish Gilligan's first novel, Kyra, which the author describes as being "about love between a man and a woman in this point in history."

Audiences describe Gilligan’s lectures as “magical, informative, moving and provocative.” Her students at Harvard gave her courses the highest ratings. Now a full-time University Professor at NYU at both the Graduate School of Education and the NYU School of the Law, Dr. Gilligan is among the pioneering scholars and writers of our time.