And some feminists warn that Gilligan's assertions of differences between the sexes has actually encouraged a dangerous backlash toward biological determinism and traditional gender roles.

"It became easy to appropriate Gilligan's theories on behalf of discriminatory arguments that could cause real harm to women," writes Backlash author Susan C. Faludi '81, also a former Crimson editor.

A Cultural Blind Spot

But Gilligan says such arguments miss part of the point of her book. Many women's distinct moral outlooks--long considered deficient--should be seen instead as strengths.

Even more importantly, she says, her work leaves a larger legacy of expanding psychological theory, long reliant on male-only research, to include women's voices.

"It exposed a cultural blind spot," says Gilligan, pointing out that generations of psychological theory prior to her work had ignored female research subjects.

Gilligan has brought that legacy to New York University Law School, where she has been co-teaching a seminar on "issues of developing and expressing dissenting voice against the stereotypes of gender and sexuality" for the past two years, according to NYU Law Professor David Richards.

In fact, Richards says Gilligan will be relocating permanently to NYU soon, though Gilligan says she has not relinquished her Harvard post and plans to work at both schools half-time next year.