Between Voice and Silence

Women and Girls, Race and Relationships

Jill McLean Taylor

Carol Gilligan

Amy Sullivan

    This enlightening book focuses on the lives of 26 girls as they struggle to overcome a range of obstacles in their family and school lives...This book [shows] the importance of sustained, accepting relationships with women in order for girls to have opportunities to speak freely, sort through complex issues in their lives, and feel understood...The book's strengths include its interdisciplinary approach in which the authors, speaking as essayists, story writers, and cultural critics as well as social researchers, often draw on the voices of women of color (along with their daughters and other girls)...They bring a more sophisticated approach to listening into psychological inquiry, one which explicitly attends to cultural and ethnic biases.
       --Donna Eder, American Journal of Sociology

    Public school girls 'at risk'--for early motherhood, dropping out of school, abusive relationships--are the subject of this collaborative study...As with the earlier, landmark study, this important, accessible research establishes the need for bringing women and girls together.
       --Publishers Weekly,

    Written in a clear, interesting manner, Between Voice and Silence has much to offer social work practitioners, educators, and administrators. Instead of seeing the adolescent girl as an irresponsible teenage mother or acting-out high school student, this book presents the voices of adolescent girls in their struggles within nonsupportive environments.
       --Elaine P. Congress, Families in Society

  • Cover: Between Voice and Silence
  • A photo of the author

Jill McLean Taylor is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Human Services, Simmons College.

Carol Gilligan is University Professor at the New York University School of Law.

Amy M. Sullivan is a research consultant and a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.