Mary Whiton Calkins : An American Philosopher And Psychologist

As a result, she lacked confidence in her education. She stated, “My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunities which the present day affords and which even our common schools now afford. I was never sent to any school; I was always sick.” Even though she did not attend a formal school it did not put her out of reach of a proper education (Peterson, 9).

Emma Willard was raised by her father who was a farmer. He encouraged her to read, write, think independently, and to attend a local academy. Right after she began teaching. In 1809, she married a doctor named John Willard. Then she opened her own school, the Middlebury Female Seminary, in 1814 and provided advanced education for young women who were denied by colleges.

Mamie Phipps Clark started her college career in 1934. She began going to college at Howard University as a math major which she graduated magna cum laude in 1938 but when she went back she changed her major to psychology after her husband Kenneth Clark persuaded her to do so. He told her that there would not be that many job opportunities for her and thought it would be better if she got a degree in psychology.

Throughout the early days of psychology, opportunities for women where limited and it was an extremely difficult time for women to become apparent in the field of psychology. Women struggled for equality in the field of psychology and this began with our pioneers, Mary Whiton Calkins, who sat her PhD but was never awarded it, Margaret Washburn, being the first women to be awarded a PhD and Christine Ladd Franklin.

Born in different times and different continents, Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Addams contributed greatly for the women's right movement and education. Comparing and contrasting this two women, we can notice some similarities. Both have some mental health issue, Mary Wollstonecraft was raised in a dysfunctional family, with a alcoholic and abuse father. She struggled with depression and have a rebellious nature. In the same perspective, Jane Addams also suffered with depression due to physical problems and back pain, however, as young women she was shy and reserved.

Margaret was exceptionally bright in school and her father pleaded with her to go back. Margaret refused. Margaret's two older sisters, Mary and Nan, offered to pay for the cost of a private school out of their paychecks if Margaret agreed to wait tables for her room and board. So, in 1896 Margaret ended up at Claverack, one of the first coeducational schools in the East. It was there that her natural leadership skills blossomed in the form popularity and pranks (Miller 199-203).

She eventually decided on what she wanted to study at the university and continued on to

Jane was elected president of her class and was adored by her classmates. One of them would write, "However mopey it might be elsewhere, there was intellectual ozone in (Jane’s) vicinity." Yet Jane struggled at Rockford to find a sense of direction and purpose, eventually deciding that she would study medicine after graduation. It was a difficult time for her and she would later write that women were not educated to become leaders, but to be "a symbol of her father’s protection and prosperity."

University while working a full time job. Being forced to drop out was very hard for Mary. She did not let this unfortunate situation dampen her ambition. “She just had to quickly recalibrate her ambitions. She still had big dreams-maybe she could become an entrepreneur, open a beauty salon or own her own

Mary Whiton Calkins had a hard time getting her graduate school education because at the time women were not accepted into nearby graduate institutions. She studied at Harvard unofficially under William James, for more than 10 years, and she refused to accept a PhD from Radcliffe. Instead she decided to take an unofficial PhD examination at Harvard. It was William James who directed her dissertation and was her mentor. Calkins published over a hundred papers in psychology and published four books on psychology as well. For her contributions, she was granted honorary degrees from Columbia and Smith. One of her most influential accomplishments was inventing the paired-associate technique that is still widely used today. She was also able to

Her work experience and historical knowledge is clear, and her historical facts and figures can be checked using the many primary and secondary sources she sites in her bibliography. However, she does tend to focus on minute details of the lives of the women she discusses that are of lesser importance than their achievement or political lives, such as the explanation of Felton’s husband’s career and political viewpoints. However, her narrative gives insight into the differing values of white and black women at the time and what was seen to be acceptable for a woman, and a woman of color, to say and do, as well as the consequences they faced for defying racism, male-dominance and widespread

“The subject of the Education of Women of the higher classes is one which has undergone singular fluctuations in public opinions” (Cobbe 79). Women have overcome tremendous obstacles throughout their lifetime, why should higher education stand in their way? In Frances Power Cobbe’s essay “The Education of Women,” she describes how poor women, single women, and childless wives, deserve to share a part of the human happiness. Women are in grave need of further improvements in their given condition. Cobbe suggests that a way to progress these improvements manifests in higher education, and that this will help further steps in advance. Cobbe goes on to say that the happiest home, most grateful husband, and the most devoted children came from a woman, Mary Sommerville, who surpassed men in science, and is still studying the wonders of God’s creations. Cobbe has many examples within her paper that shows the progression of women as a good thing, and how women still fulfill their duties despite the fact that they are educated. The acceptance of women will be allowed at the University of New England because women should be able to embrace their abilities and further their education for the benefit of their household, their lives, and their country.

Once Calkins started looking at the United States, she discovered that the University of Michigan, where she would be studying under John Dewey, and Yale, where she would be studying under G.T. Ladd, were promising. However, she received a letter from another woman student that dissuaded her. The letter stated, "Personally, I should be immensely glad if you would come. We might be able to get some delightful work together...By the way Prof. Ladd thinks you ought to have some lady with you at the lectures. If there were only one or two other girls who would come to join us, we

Mary Lincoln went to a private school, enjoyed going there and liked to perform in school plays

When we study the history of psychology one might assume there were minimal female contributors, but that is a big misconception. Women in the past struggled with discrimination and many hurdles to gain recognition for their work. Women psychologists have gone largely unrecognized, unappreciated, and almost unseen to historical accounts. The lack of acknowledgement for women psychologists in today’s study takes away from the comprehensive study to our generation. It is exceedingly important that we receive a well-rounded education of all the great psychologists in history and not only the male founders. The following women I will discuss mention only a few who have made an influence in psychology.