The birth of psychology can be described as a ‘boys club’, those ‘boys’ being white men typically of western descent. However, they were not the only group to contribute significantly to early psychology. Many women during the turn of the 20th century challenged the male-centred norm by conducting research, founding psychology labs and shaping the way we see psychology today.
Being a woman in early psychology was not without obstacles. It was common for women to be excluded from universities and professional circles as it was believed that a women’s role was as a wife or mother rather than an academic. Women such as Calkins who after completing the requirements of a PhD at Harvard never received the degree and Ladd-Franklin who met the requirements of the PhD in 1882 but was not awarded the degree until 1926 (Benjamin, 2023) were both restricted in their education because of their gender. Women were even ostracised by those who were willing to educate them. Titchener, an experimental psychologist at Cornell, supervised 21 women PhD students while subsequently prohibiting women from joining his experimentalist group believing the women to be too delicate to join such a group (Goodwin, 2015). These barriers left many women with limited career paths with many ending up at women’s colleges or in applied roles.
Despite these challenges women still contributed to the progression of psychology. Woolley and Hollingworth both conducted research that challenged the understanding of the time that women were inferior to men. Woolley tested the differences in psychological traits between sexes; her results showed a higher number of similarities than difference which confronted the scientific theories of the time (Woolley, 1903). Hollingworth, by testing professional women during and after menstruation, found no significant difference between the test results, disproving assumptions that women became incapacitated during their menstrual cycle (Hollingworth, 1914). Gamble was another who shaped the role of women in psychology. She succeeded Calkins running the psychology laboratory at Wellesley college; during this time several quality experimental psychology papers were published. Wellesley college gave women in psychology the opening to publish work and experience leaderships roles, opportunities usually reserved for men at this time. Additionally, women such as Bronner and Fernald worked in a clinical setting. Bronner conducted research in juvenile delinquency, assessing the needs of each delinquent children and creating relative guidance rather than exclusively punishment and Fernald is credited with developing methods used as diagnostic tools for individuals with learning difficulties.
Although women had the opportunity to work in applied fields and institutions such as Wellesley college these roles were not seen as prestigious and often considered as low-ranking occupations. This resulted in women who were highly educated with experience in the field continually facing barriers because of the hierarchical nature of early psychology. Women in 20th century psychology had to fight hard for the opportunity to contribute to psychology and while many of them were under valued during this period their efforts can still be seen today. In 2021 Gruber et al. published findings estimating that in psychology 78% of undergraduate students and 71% of graduate students in the United States are women. These statistics would not be possible without the many women who pioneered the path for women to contribute to the field of psychology.
Benjamin Jr, L. T. (2023). A brief history of modern psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
Goodwin, C. J. (2015). A history of modern psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
Gruber, J., Mendle, J., Lindquist, K. A., Schmader, T., Clark, L. A., Bliss-Moreau, E., … & Williams, L. A. (2021). The future of women in psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(3), 483-516.
Hollingworth, L. S. (1914). Functional periodicity: An experimental study of the mental and motor abilities of women during menstruation (No. 69). Teachers college, Columbia university.
Woolley, H. B. T., & Woolley, H. T. (1903). The mental traits of sex: An experimental investigation of the normal mind in men and women. University of Chicago Press.
