For a little more detail on how Gilligan’s account of moral development differs from and responds to those of her predecessors, check out this page from the U. of Illinois Office for Studies in Moral Development and Education.

Given that it’s aimed at educators, the emphasis is on how schools can affect moral development. I found this bit in Piaget spoke to the consideration of socialization in our Rousseau discussion:

The relative powerlessness of young children, coupled with childhood egocentrism feeds into a heteronomous moral orientation [meaning it's tied to blind obedience to authority].

However, through interactions with other children in which the group seeks a to play together in a way all find fair, children find this strict heteronomous adherence to rules sometimes problematic. As children consider these situations, they develop towards an “autonomous” stage of moral reasoning, characterized by the ability to consider rules critically, and selectively apply these rules based on a goal of mutual respect and cooperation. The ability to act from a sense of reciprocity and mutual respect is associated with a shift in the child’s cognitive structure from egocentrism to perspective taking… Thus, Piaget viewed moral development as the result of interpersonal interactions through which individuals work out resolutions which all deem fair…

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