Carol Gilligan

Carol Gilligan was a social worker who visited 13-year old Faye Windass a week after she unexpectedly gave birth to a baby daughter.

The Windass family were on tenterhooks at the visit, with most of them having different reactions to the matter at hand: Faye herself hated the child and wanted to reject her, Anna Windass, with more long-held maternal feelings, wanted to make sure the child never needed to be adopted in the way that Faye had been whereas her partner Owen Armstrong only wanted to make sure that Faye herself was happy.

Tensions were therefore high when Carol entered 19a Rosamund Street where Gary Windass and Faye's natural father Tim Metcalfe were also present. She tried her absolute best to put everyone at ease but things got off to a bad start as Faye had used an excuse of no biscuits in the house to flee to the Corner Shop to cry on the shoulder of her older friend Sophie Webster. Owen was alerted by Sophie to the state of Faye's true feelings.

When she returned to the flat, the discussion proper got underway although Anna hogged all of the answers that Carol directed at Faye until Owen interjected and told her to let the child speak for herself and Carol herself gently pointed out that she wanted to hear Faye's views. Faye put on a good show but Owen wasn't convinced by the sincerity of her answers and said that in his opinion Faye was saying what she felt they all wanted to hear and not what she felt herself. When pushed, Faye admitted she didn't want the baby and wanted everything to return to how it was before. The visit had reached its end and Carol left, telling Faye not to fret as everyone would work out what was best for her and the baby. She left behind her an explosive atmosphere as Anna took her anger out on Owen for not getting her own way and caused an irrevocable split between the two.