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

"The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man's attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman." - Darwin (1871)
"Identical education of the sexes is a crime before God and humanity, that physiology protests against and that experience weeps over." - Clarke (1873)
"Deficiency in reproductive power . . . can be reasonable attributed to the overtaxing of (women's) brains." - Spencer (1867)
"The 'woman's rights movement' is an attempt to rear, by the process of 'un-natural selection', a race of monstrosities - hostile alike to men, to normal women, to human society, and to the future development of our race." - Bagehut (1879)

To illustrate the fact that statements such as these failed to deter ALL women:

Women such as Christine Ladd-Franklin, Ruth Fulton Benedict, and Ida B. Wells have traditionally been omitted from the histories of their disciplines. This webpage is designed to re-place women into the history of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and social work. 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. This webpage represents the culmination of these students' work.

Society of Experimental Psychology - Women were not admitted until after the death of the Society's founder, E. B. Titchener, in 1929. Can you find Margaret Floy Washburn?

For more information about this seminar, contact Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology at Webster University.

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Women's Intellectual Contributions to the

To illustrate the fact that statements such as these failed to deter ALL women:

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