Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society

Students, as part of an advanced seminar, examined and wrote about the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers.
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Jacqueline J. Goodnow, PhD

Jacqueline J. Goodnow was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia on November 25, 1924. She is a "fifth generation Australian with "convict" and ordinary citizen forebears on her father's side" (O'Connell and Felipe, 1990). She is the second child of six. She attended college at the age of 16 at the University of Sydney, obtaining her Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Psychology in 1944. She then attended Radcliffe (Harvard) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1951 and received her Ph.D.

Goodnow notes that a positive factor in her life was her mother's attitude toward education. In an email correspondence, Goodnow told of her mother's belief. "She herself had been directed, by her mother, into secretarial training and she was determined that her own children could continue studying as long as they liked, as long as they received scholarships to cover at least part of the cost." She also noted that the only difficulty she had as a woman was getting tenure at the University. "There were exactly two women with tenure and my enquiries met with the comment that I was 'in any case the kind of woman who'd probably get married and have children some time.' Luckily, a senior staff member (male) gave me excellent advice: go overseas and get a Ph. D and then apply. His advice was also to go to a large University such as Harvard, Berkeley, or Illinois (his own Ph.D. was from Illinois) on the grounds that I'd learn a great deal from other graduate students in a good place and that diversity in the faculty was essential".

Goodnow received many honors both in Australia and in the United States.

Her Australian honors include:

Her U.S. Honors include:

Goodnow has published eight books since 1980, over sixty journal articles and chapters, and has contributed to over twenty-five articles and books where she was not first author. The majority of Goodnow's work involves "social contexts (family, community, culture) on development over the life-course." She is currently in collaboration with Associate Professor Jeanette Lawrence at the University of Melbourne. Their empirical research is focused on family norms and the practices related to the distribution of work and wealth" (see reference above).

A few titles of her publications include:

Most recently, Goodnow received the 1999 SRCD Award for distinguished scientific contributions to developmental psychology. She is Emeritus Professor and Professorial Research Fellow at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia (http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/AHDA/c_speakers1.htm).

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