BUT WHAT DO THEY SAY - GENDER AND THE CONTENT OF STUDENT WRITING

Carol Gilligan’s work, In a Different Voice (1982), tracing themes of autonomy in men's responses to moral dilemmas and connectedness in women’s responses, offers a fruitful framework for studying the content of college students' writing. This article discusses the results of a study of several hundred essays written by an equal number of male and female students in response to two separate prompts on a writing proficiency test. Although Gilligan’s hypothesis that men are more likely to focus on issues relating to an individual’s autonomy, whereas women are more likely to be concerned with issues regarding a person’s relationship to others is partially borne out, the results of the study also show that themes of autonomy are, overall, more common in the writing of these college students. The article describes the study and tries to account for the findings, suggesting implications for further research and classroom practice. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.