Different Voice Amplified

Last summer, a proposal landed on the editors’ desk at Harvard Educational Review (HER). Sent by Randy Testa, Ed.M.’78, Ed.D.’90, a former senior project manager at the Ed School, the proposal suggested doing something in a future issue to commemorate Carol Gilligan’s groundbreaking essay, “In a Different Voice,” which had first been published in HER’s December 1977 issue. The piece argued that developmental theory has not given adequate attention to the concerns and experience of women on many issues, including abortion.

It was a tricky proposition, given that when Gilligan first submitted the essay in 1977, it was rejected, twice, by HER editors before eventually running. But Testa felt it was the right time to revisit the original piece, which eventually became a book that became a bestseller. 

“I pointed out the timeliness of addressing Gilligan’s essay ahead of its 45th anniversary and particularly on the heels of the Supreme Court’s then-recent Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade” in 2022, Testa says. 

Luckily, this time, the HER editorial staff responded with excitement and agreed to publish six essays in their spring 2024 issue that were written by former students of Gilligan, who taught at the Ed School for 15 years. The essays focused on the relevance of the 1977 essay for today, as well as its impact on the writers’ work. Testa, who was one of those students, also suggested they rerun Gilligan’s original essay as a way to introduce her work to a new generation of students and readers. 

Caroline Tucker, a current Ph.D. student and HER co-editor, remembers that the prospect of honoring Gilligan created a “buzz” among the journal student staff. 

“The board found the subject matter incredibly relevant to the present moment,” she says. “Furthermore, we were all curious to learn more about the history of HER and HGSE through working with Randy and the other authors. HER doesn’t reprint past pieces often, but the board felt that revisiting this piece and Gilligan’s commitment to amplifying ‘different voices’ was aligned with our mission and worthwhile for our readers.” 

Co-editor Kemeyawi Wahpepah, also a Ph.D. student, feels that Gilligan’s essay, even years later, is still incredibly valuable for readers. 

“Gilligan’s paradigm-shifting article highlighted how much we have to gain from actively engaging with marginalized perspectives,” she says. “At a moment when the autonomy and safety of many people — including women and girls — is being challenged across the nation and the globe, it is more important than ever to center the voices of marginalized groups in our academic endeavors.” 

It has also been important for Wahpepah personally.

“As a former teacher at a girls’ school, which emphasized the importance of educational research on girls’ education and development, I found Gilligan’s work extremely relevant to my own professional experiences,” she says. “Furthermore, as a Native scholar who works to counteract the erasure of Native stories of attending school in the United States, I found that Gilligan’s firm insistence on taking marginalized voices seriously within the field of education provided an inspiring and instructive model for my own work.” 

Testa says that he reached out to Gilligan and she was happy to hear that her essay was finding a home again with HER. 

“I believe Carol is deeply gratified to see her essay come full-circle, that is, initially looked with derision — ‘this is not social science’ — to now being the subject of a special ‘symposium’ section of the Harvard Educational Review,” he says. “This re-instatement is also emblematic of what has happened to the field of women’s psychology/ development and to Carol’s research and scholarship.”