Kristin Harris: “Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Way of Knowing:  Moral and Cognitive Development”

            The moral and cognitive development of Elizabeth Cady Stanton was examined in three periods of conflict in her life to determine her way of knowing in this qualitative study.  Stanton’s personal correspondence was coded with schemes developed from the models of Gilligan (1982) and Belenky et al. (1986).  Across all three periods of conflict, Stanton exhibited evidence of being in the third highest stage of moral development, as well as being in the stage of constructed knowledge for cognitive development.  Although Stanton was found to be in the highest stages of moral and cognitive development, the findings are limited due to differences in both context and materials studied for Stanton and modern women who participated in Gilligan’s and Belenky et al.’s studies.