Women In Psychology

This is women's history month in the United States. In this episode, we examine the lives of a few of the women who've made a significant impact in the field of mental health.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Today's podcast is a specialepisode and we'll be a little
different in that.
I'm going to be the lone voiceyou hear.
This is women's history month, acelebrated in the United States.
And I thought it'd be fun to doa little research on women in
the field of mental health.
Who've made a significant impactand share those with you.
If one were to walk the halls ofthe museum of psychology, there

(00:25):
would hang the pictures of manyfamiliar.
Freud Erickson, Adler, Rogers,Skinner, Piaget, Bandura Maslow,
and on and on.
Perhaps the only difference onewould notice in these photos is
whether or not the person woreglasses or had a beard.
Psychology has definitely beenbuilt with a white male.

(00:48):
Now, of course, the emission ofwomen from history is not unique
to psychology as Gerda, Lerner,and American historian
well-known for her work inwomen's history, pointed out
traditional history has beenwritten and interpreted by men
in an androcentric frame ofreference.
It might quite properly bedescribed as the history of men,

(01:09):
the very term women's historycalls, attention to the fact
that something is missing fromhistorical scholar.
The reality is that women havebeen contributing to psychology
since its earliest days.
Estimate suggests that in theearly 19 hundreds, roughly 12%
of psychologists in the UnitedStates were women.
However, many of thesepioneering women in psychology

(01:32):
faced considerablediscrimination, obstacles, and
difficult.
Many we're not allowed to studywith men were denied degrees
that they'd rightfully earned orfound it difficult to secure
academic positions that wouldallow them to research and
publish.
One of the pictures you'd findin that hall of psychology fame
is James McKeen.

(01:52):
Cattell.
He was a highly visible andinfluential member of the
psychological establishmentcentrally involved in founding
and controlling the earlydirection of the American
psychological association.
In 1906 could tell published thefirst edition of American men of
science, a biographicaldirectory containing more than
4,000 individuals in northAmerica who had contributed to

(02:15):
the.
In order to be included in thisimportant directory, an
individual had to havecontributed to the advancement
of science or be a member ofcertain national societies
because of Cattell'sconnections.
It's not surprising that one ofhis primary resources was the
APA, which in 1906 was 14 yearsold and had about 175 members.

(02:38):
Although the name of thispublication was American men of
science.
There were a handful of womenincluded three women.
In fact, receive stars in thefirst edition of AMS, placing
them among the scientists whomcould tell, had identified in
1903 as the most meritorious inthe country.
They were married when.

(02:58):
Christine lad Franklin andMargaret Floy, Washburn who
ranked 12th, 19th, and 42ndamong 50 starred.
Psychologists being allowed tostudy was the first of a host of
educational battles.
These women would face ladFranklin wrote in her journal at
age 19.
I have gained an important pointwith my grandmother.

(03:21):
She says she thinks Antioch tosend me to that.
She objected that at the end offour years, I should be too old
to get married.
I assured her that it wouldafford me great pleasure to
entangle a husband, but therewas no one in the place would
have me or whom I would have.
And now this place I wasdestined, never to go, gave her
statistics of the great excessof females in new England and

(03:44):
proved that I was decidedly, nothandsome.
My chances were very.
Therefore, since I could notfind a husband to support me, I
must support myself and to doso.
I needed an education grandma'ssuccumbed.
These women begin their graduatestudies as quote, special
students at their collegesdesignated with a special status

(04:06):
as a reflection of the femaleexclusionary policies of these
institutions policies that werewaived only partially from.
So both lad Franklin andCaulkins completed all
requirements.
Each was denied a doctorateWashburn transferred from
Columbia to Cornell, where shewas eligible for both the degree

(04:27):
and fellowship there.
She studied under AB tensionerand in 1894 became the first
woman to receive a PhD inpsychology.
Employment for women aspsychology was almost totally
limited to the women's colleges.
Exclusion from the researchuniversities, those that were
then the center of professionalactivity limited the women's

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research activities, as well astheir interactions with the
leading figures in the emergingfield of psychology and
describing some of theadvantages of being at women's
colleges.
Patricia Pell, Mary wrote theseacademic women did not shift
their life courses away from thecommunal mentality as did many
male professionals, nor did theysingle-mindedly adhere to

(05:10):
scientific rationalist.
Specialization social scienceobjectivity or hierarchal
association in which verticalmobility took precedence over
sisterhood at Welsy where MaryCalkins taught women had to
forego marriage and motherhoodbecause like other institutions
of higher education in that era,it didn't consider acceptable to

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include married women on itsfaculty and educated woman was
faced with what was termed thecruel choice, marriage or career
unlike Caulkins and Washburnlad.
Franklin did get.
Rendering her ineligible forconsideration as a candidate for
an academic position, none ofthe married women at that time

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had regular or permanentacademic affiliations.
Their career patterns did notcome with professional
advancement.
Despite the many obstacles, MaryWhitten, Caulkins found a way to
prominence becoming the firstwoman to serve as president of
the.
She established one of the firstpsychological laboratories in

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the country at Wellesley collegeand published four books and
over a hundred papers inpsychology and philosophy.
Christine lad Franklin's role asa female leader in psychology
began early in her life as bothher mother and aunt were staunch
supporters of women's.
This early influence not onlyhelped her succeed in her field,

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despite considerable opposition.
It also inspired her later workadvocating for women's rights in
academia, a brilliantmathematician, logistician,
astronomer, and psychologist.
Christine lad, Franklin is bestknown at this point for her
study of color vision rejectingthe predominant theory
established by the German HermanVon helm.

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And avid journaler.
Her writing provides a lot ofinsight into the battles she
faced as a professional woman,as someone who can not keep a
journal.
One of my favorite quotes fromlad Franklin came when she
seemed to become set up with thepractice.
Quote, there's nothing morefoolish than to write a journal,
except the very act and fact ofbeing such a foolish, stupid

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person and quote, just kiddingto all you faithful journalists
out there.
Behind Caulkins Margaret FloydWashburn was the second woman to
serve as the president of theAmerican psychological
association.
She published something like 127articles over the span of 35
years, studying and writing oncomparative psychology on her

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work with a wide variety ofanimals on the far side of the
globe around the same time.
Sirocco her a Gucci graduatedtwo years ahead of her
classmates from Takasaki women'shigh school in 1900.
Women during this period werenot permitted to attend Japanese
universities for graduatestudies and women's private

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colleges were not officiallyrecognized as universities or
colleges for several moredecades.
So how are Gucci traveled aloneto New York in 1907 to pursue a
doctorate in psychology atteacher's college of Columbia
university under supervisor E L.
Thorndyke another man picturedin the hall of fame.
Harget she's dissertation atColumbia focused on mental

(08:22):
fatigue.
Her research on fatigue,explored topics such as the
influence of mental work onphysiological processes.
And on the efficiency of mentalfunctions, her dissertation was
translated into severallanguages, was cited by
Thorndyke in the journaleducational psychology, and was
replicated by other scientists.

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Hard.
Gucci's lesser known workincludes research on female
independence, internationalstudies and married.
How are good.
She returned to Japan with hernew husband and two small
children.
She extended and translated herdoctoral thesis in Japanese,
under the title studies ofmental work and fatigue, which
was published in 1914.

(09:03):
And she translated hereditarygenius by sir Francis Galton
into Japanese, sadly hard Guccicontracted and died of
tuberculosis at the young age of29.
How Gucci's legacy andinspiration lives on through her
work and through severaldocumentaries conducted on her
life, it would have been amazingto see what she could have

(09:23):
accomplished if, sort of goharder.
Good.
She had lived a long life backto our male dominated hall of
fame.
Sigmund Freud is probably themost recognized name in
psychology, right.
But it's his daughter, Anna, whowe're going to focus on today.
I've often wondered about Anna'slife.
Can you imagine having SigmundFreud is your dad really?

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Dad, the Oedipus complex penisenvy.
Anna was born the youngest ofFreud six children.
She was described as unruly andrestless script, struggling with
depression and possibly aneating disorder.
She had a contentiousrelationship with her older
sister, Sophia.

(10:06):
She wants.
I am glad that Sophie is gettingmarried because the unending
quarrel between us was horriblefor me.
More than anything, she soughtthe admiration of her father.
Unfortunately it seems he oftentreated her more as a patient
than a daughter using her in hisstudies on psychoanalysis.
She wants said that she learnedmore from listening to her

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father and his conversationswith their frequent guests than
she did.
At age 15, she began to readSigmund's books and was sitting
in on the meetings of the Viennapsychoanalytic society and a
Freud built on her.
Father's work by identifyingdifferent defense mechanisms and
our 1936 books, the ego and themechanisms of defense, defense

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mechanisms like denial,repression, and suppression have
made their way into our everydaylanguage.
But what I have alwaysappreciated about Anna is her
work with children.
She's not the first to have donepsychoanalysis with children,
but it was Anna who firstsystematized and refined child
psychology into a distinct formof therapy.

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This is despite her father'sdisbelief that children could be
psychoanalyze.
In 1941, Anna Freud opened tokindergarten and several homes
for children in London.
She had studied under MariaMontessori and she was moved by
all those little children.
She saw traumatized by war.
So she devoted herself toworking with children.

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She based the development of hertheories on her.
Father's.
But when Anna began herpsychotherapy sessions, she
avoided assuming the paternalfigure that was so typical of
psychoanalysis.
She knew children needed a warm,friendly and relaxed environment
in order to communicatecomfortably.
She was the first to make use ofgames as a mechanism to enter

(11:55):
the emotional world of thechild, thus becoming the first
to provide play therapy.
She aimed to interact withchildren using intimacy and
their own language.
So the classic therapist's couchwas replaced with a playroom.
Our next highlighted womandoesn't have the name
recognition of a Freud.

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If you've heard about MamiePhipps Clark, it was likely only
in passing.
This woman made many importantcontributions to psychology, but
her gender and the color of herskin have kept her from
receiving the prominence sheneeded.
In 1917, Mamie Phipps Clark wasborn in hot Springs, Arkansas,
the daughter of a doctor and hiswife who actively participated

(12:40):
in this practice made me, wasencouraged to pursue education.
And at Howard university, shemet her husband and found her
passion in the field ofpsychology.
She graduated Magna Kumani andwent on to graduate school,
birthing two children in the.
Her master's thesis work wascentered on the formation of
racial identity and self-esteemin black children.

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She concluded that childrenbecame aware of their blackness.
So very early in childhood,likely by age four or five.
And it was precisely thisconclusion that became the
foundation for the Clark'sfamous doll studies that I'll
explain in a minute.
In 1943, she earned her PhD fromColumbia university.
Not only was she the first andonly black woman in the entire

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group, but she also became thesecond African American to earn
a doctorate from Columbia.
The first being her husband,that is a power couple.
It is unfortunately not asurprise that Clark struggled to
find work due to considerableprejudice based on both her race
and her sex.
She expects.
Although my husband had earliersecured a teaching position at

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the city college of New York.
Following my graduation, it soonbecame apparent to me that a
black female with a PhD inpsychology was an unwanted
anomaly in New York city in theearly 1940.
In 1946, Clark and her husbandfounded the north side center
for child development, which wasthe first agency to offer

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psychological services tochildren and families living in
the Harlem area of New Yorkcity, working together.
The Clark's developed a newmethod of assessing racial
identification and preferences.
The dolls test in this test,children ages three to seven.
We're presented with four dollsthat were identical except for
skin and hair.

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To assess racial preference.
The children responded to thefollowing requests by picking
one of the dolls and handing itto the experimenter gave me the
doll that you like to play with,or like best.
Give me the doll.
That's a nice stall.
Give me a doll that looks bad.
Give me a doll that is a nicecolor.
The children were then asked tomake racial identifications.

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Give me the doll that looks likea colored child and self
identification.
Give me a doll that looks like.
They tested kids in segregatedschools in the south and in
integrated schools in the north,the clerks discovered that many
of the Southern children appearto have internalized a passive
resigned acceptance of theirinferior racial status while the

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children in the racially mixedschools seem to more aware of
the injustice of racialdiscrimination and were more
actively upset.
They concluded that integrationwas a key to helping children,
both black and white achievehealthy racial
self-identification and toimprove race relations made me
Phipps Clark played an importantrole in the civil rights

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movement as her work with herhusband demonstrated that the
concept of separate but equalprovided a far from equal
education for blacks.
It was the Clark's work and herexpertise in black children's
self perceptions that providedsocial scientific evidence that
was highly influential in theSupreme court's decision in the
1954 brown vs board of educationcase Clark served as the

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director of the north sidecenter in Harlem from 1946, the
year, if it's in seven, Untilher retirement in 1979, she died
on August 11th, 1983.
Another important woman inpsychology has a name.
You likely don't recognize herparents having immigrated from
Mexico.
Dr.

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Martha Bernal was born in SanAntonio in 1930.
But I'll remember it beingtreated differently because of
her skin color and her accentfrom as early as elementary
school, her schools in El Paso,Texas were segregated and she
and her Spanish speaking peerswere forbidden to speak Spanish
at school, but all describe thisinstilling a sense of shame

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about her heritage at the sametime.
However, she recalls a strongconnection with her identity as
a person of color.
Later in her career, thisidentity would become the focus
of her work.
Burn, all wanted to studypsychology, but her father was
highly opposed as he felt thathigher education for women was
not necessary as she really justneeded to find a husband and

(16:59):
have children.
The women in the family finallywore him down and she was given
permission to pursue hermaster's degree at Syracuse.
In 1962, Bernalda achieved thedistinction of becoming the
first Latina to earn a PhD inpsychology in the United.
Brunel studied learning theoryand methods to the treatment and
assessment of children withbehavior problems.

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through both her scholarship andprofessional activities.
She helped to advance inmulticultural psychology.
One that recognizes theimportance of diversity and
training recruitment andresearch.
One of her highest prioritiesbecame the promotion,
recruitment and training forother Hispanics psychosis.
And she became a pioneer in thestudy of ethnic identity.

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Few women will ever know thekind of discrimination that
Martha Brunel experienced in herlifetime and few will ever
achieve as much as she did,despite it.
As a lesbian woman of color froma working class background,
Berdahl could have beenroadblocked by the prejudice and
obstacles around her, butinstead she used the support she
got from her family and friendsto inspire her and motivate her
to achieve spectacular successin her chosen.

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Part of her obituary.
I stated that Dr.
Burnell was quote passionateabout her ideas.
She spoke out effectivelyagainst injustice.
She maintained high standards,scholarship and professional.
She demonstrated much compassionfor fellow human beings.
And she had considerable energyin quote.

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I have so much appreciation andhonor that I want to extend to
Mary Whitten.
Caulkins Christine lad, FranklinMargaret Floyd Washburn sort of
go hard.
A Gucci, Anna Freud made mePhipps Clark and Martha Burnell
for being strong, ambitiouspioneering women in those early
days of psychology.

(18:47):
As I was researching for thispodcast, I struggled with who I
could include.
Because there are so manyinspiring women in the history
of this field.
I wanted to tell the stories ofKaren Horn and I who went up
against Sigmund Freud'smisogynistic theories and as
Prosser, the first black womanwho earned a PhD in psychology,
Marigold Linton, the firstAmerican Indian to receive a

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doctorate in psychology, whoseresearch on long-term memory
continues to be widely cited,Mary Ainsworth and her amazing
work on attachment theory,melanie Klein and innovator and
play therapy.
And Eleanor Mac could be thefirst woman to chair the
psychology department atStanford university and by her
own description, the first womanto ever deliver a lecture at

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Stanford, wearing a pantsuit.
And then there's the ladies inmy own psychology history.
Those who have encouraged,taught and inspired me in a
personal.
June Brinegar.
My first mentor in the field whodemonstrated deep and abiding
care for every person sheencountered Wendy Miller, the
supervisor, who always seemed tohave the right words at the

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right moments.
Terry Cottman, whose book onAdlerian play therapy changed
the course of my life.
Adrian bags, an educator whosekindness and use of mindfulness
has smoothed away in my PhD.
If you're interested in moreinformation on the women I
discussed today, I got a lot ofgreat information from a number

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of helpful stories.
The women in [e-mail], 10 women who
help [e-mail].
Feminist voices.com a 1986article in American psychologist
titled placing women in thehistory of psychology by Laurel
free Moto and ElizabethScarborough and individual

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biography pages of the variouswomen in this women's history
month.
I hope you will take some timeto reflect on or research women
who have been overlooked intheir contributions to making
this world a better place to myfellow, contemporary women in
mental health.
I see you and I appreciate, andI value you.
You are making your mark on theworld in big ways and small, I

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would love to hear of the womenwho inspire you.
So drop me a comment or send mea note.
Thanks for calling.
Oh and are your notes finishedyet?