ABSTRACT
A woman’s voice often will not be heard, even when it is quite clear, if the woman’s reality is not congruent with dominant societal values.
(Jordan 1987:2)
INTRODUCTION
In challenging the ways that the current patriarchal organisation of western society has subordinated and frequently pathologised women, feminists have examined the implicit male bias of developmental assumptions that govern gender socialisation. These assumptions are becoming clearer as models and schools of psychotherapy are sifted for gender bias in their theory, practice and research. While the earliest feminist thinking tended to emphasise the importance for women of resisting and overcoming the constraints of male-biased socialisation, attention was later given to the articulation of a psychology specifically researched on and about women (Miller 1976). These theoretical developments were not expressed in terms of woman’s place in man’s life cycle or defined in opposition to prevailing male norms. They were rooted in women’s own experience by paying attention to their ‘different voice’ (Gilligan 1982).
