Building on the earlier work of Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg (See: Key Figures) began working on a theory of moral development as a graduate student in the 1950s, continuing to revise and add to it throughout his life. Kohlberg argued that moral reasoning has six developmental stages, with these broken into three phases: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional, with two stages in each phase. These developmental stages are primarily concerned with justice, and thus privilege a legalistic rights/justice orientation. Kohlberg argued that it is rare to regress in stages and that no stage can be skipped. Kohlberg provided his research subjects—who were usually male—with fictional moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma (See: Index of Terms). He analyzed the respondents’ justifications for actions taken in response to the dilemma to determine their moral developmental stage.

In critiquing Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, Gilligan more broadly critiques the deontological approach that Kohlberg assumes as essential to moral development. Developed by Immanuel Kant, deontological ethics argues that there are universal principles that all moral agents should adhere to, regardless of context. The rights and justice-orientation that Kohlberg assumes in his staging of subjects’ moral development can be placed within this deontological framework.