Women of Psychology

The “History of Women in Psychology” symposium provided a very interesting glimpse into the history and challenges women psychologists have faced. Ann Johnson began the program by talking about the “classic history” of women in psychology: “That’s the ‘classic history’ – they are left out and excluded,” she observed.   In recent years the “first generation” of female psychologists have started to receive more recognition, Johnson said, but she described how challenging it is to find information regarding  the “second generation” of female researchers (those receiving PhDs between 1906 and 1945). Alexandra Rutherford spoke about “Feminism and Psychology,” providing selective highlights from feminist psychology’s past and emphasizing that feminism takes different forms, depending on when it occurs.    

Anne Treisman and Eleanor Maccoby spoke next, providing fascinating overviews of how their careers have evolved. Treisman admitted that she was pretty lucky (mainly due to timing) and did not experience too much gender discrimination during her career. However, she did offer an example of a sexist incident: Early in her career, she was lecturing to a group of doctors. Following her talk (which she thought went pretty well), during the question session, she was asked, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in psychology?”  Maccoby began by describing her family life, including that her “mother was a folk singer, with a guitar, from the time she was 17,” and described how she ended up in psychology. Like Treisman, Maccoby did not really feel discriminated against for being a woman; her focus was to do good science. She mentioned that she “did not want to be a role model, just because I’m a woman.”

The audience was riveted by the fascinating panel of psychology greats and sorely disappointed when the session was over.

-Barbara Isanski