A junior faculty member whose work on women's development has challenged traditional, male-centered theories of moral growth has been offered a lifetime position at the Graduate School of Education, officials and family members said this week.

Associate Professor of Education Carol Gilligan, who specializes in adolescent development, is the fourth junior faculty member to be granted tenure at the Ed School in eight months. Gilligan, who is on leave, could not be reached for comment on whether she will accept the offer.

The author of the widely cited book, "In a Different Voice," Gilligan received President Derek C. Bok's final endorsement after a review process involving outside scholars and input from students at the graduate school, said Dean Patricia A. Graham. The tenure offer is awaiting routine, rubber-stamp approval of Harvard's seven-man governing Corporation.

Gilligan was selected after a search process which pitted her against four other finalists, chosen by an in-house search committee. The final five candidates gave lectures, which were reviewed by the search committee and students, and the committee recommended one candidate to the senior faculty. The senior faculty, in turn, unanimously recommended Gilligan's tenure bid to Bok, Graham said.

Gilligan's research has focused on challenging traditional studies on the formation of identity and moral judgment. Scholars judging women on the basisof those findings--which tended to use malesubjects only--have wrongly termed women "stunted"in their psychological growth, she wrote.

Gilligan's results, which sharply contradictthat traditional theory, found that it is unfairto compare men's development to women's becausemen are brought up differently and taught adifferent value system.

Gilligan's appointment yesterday receivedresounding praise from colleagues.

"She has challenged the paradigm" of thepsychology of moral development, said Professor ofRomance and Comparative Literatures Susan R.Suleiman. Suleiman, the chairman of the women'sstudies committee, said that the tenure decisionwill only have "positive effects" on the EdSchool.

Gilligan has "made people re-think ways ofinterpreting women's lives," said Barbara M.Solomon, a retired senior lecturer on history andliterature.

Another Harvard expert on human development,whose conclusions sharply conflict withGilligan's, said yesterday that he welcomes thejunior professor "most warmly." Lawrence Kohlberg,a professor of education and social psychology,said Gilligan "will add a great deal to the HumanDevelopment Department."

Unlike three recent junior professor tenuredenials in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,Gilligan's bid did not come under the purview ofDean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, who lastspring issued a report calling for a dramaticincrease in junior faculty tenure approvals. Thedenials of the three prominent professors haveraised questions about the University's commitmentto tenuring more of its own and the viability ofSpence's well-received plan