by Samantha Shamim
If you didn’t know already, March is Women’s History Month. As this month comes to an end soon, celebrating and empowering women is timeless and something to promote year-round, every day.
At Jackson Wellness Group, we would like to take time to recognize some of the many contributions of women toward psychology and mental wellness throughout history. As it is commonplace for many societies around the world to underestimate and devalue women’s roles in many science fields including psychology, we would like to challenge that.
This post will only highlight a few of many women. We hope that this will inspire girls and women who are passionate in psychological fields to follow their dreams. Your contributions are invaluable and there is always a great need for women and their wisdom and expertise-- in psychology and everywhere.
1. Mamie Phipps Clark
As discrimination goes, with Clark being a Black woman in addition to being a woman, textbooks omit much of the significant contributions she made to psychology regarding SEVERAL aspects of psychology. She plays a very important role in psychological inclusion for minorities through her research on race and racial identity with self-esteem, in addition to her significant contributions of the Clark Doll Test and the Brown v. Board of Education Court Case, which recognized racial segregation in schools as being unconstitutional.
2. Mary Ainsworth
If you are active on social media, it is highly likely that you have heard of attachment styles and how they contribute to the ways in which people expect, think and behave in relationships. Mary Ainsworth had presented major and groundbreaking research through her own observational experiments in understanding these different styles better.
3. Leta Stetter Hollingworth
If you’re a woman, you know that familiar feeling of wanting to roll your eyes so hard that they fall out when people assume that you’re upset or not sound intellectual when you’re on your period. Hollingworth proved this sexist myth wrong through her research. In addition, she is notable for having done significant research on gifted children and intelligence in general.
4. Karen Horney
If you’ve studied psychology, whether in a single high school course or as your college major, you undoubtedly have heard of Sigmund Freud who claimed that women have “penis envy” toward men. This idea claims that women are jealous of men because of the societally constructed superiority of men through their maleness. Horney countered this by saying that men have “womb envy.” Whereas women and their psychology was much polluted by sexist ideas by men, Horney made way for women to speak for themselves through challenging Freudian ideas.
5. Margaret Floy Washburn
Washburn played a major role in comparative psychology and was the first woman to be recognized with a Ph.D. in psychology. Her contributions also include deepened knowledge of cognitive theory, where her research showed that muscle movements played a factor in changing a person’s way of thinking.
All of these women show how women were and always are capable, no matter what anyone says. In addition to paving the movement for gender equality in the field of psychology, Mamie Phipps Clark paved an intersectional way for both gender and race. We encourage you to learn more about amazing women who have been contributing to the field of psychology throughout history-- these are just a few of many! Stay updated with our blog posts for more empowerment and inspiration.
Source: Verywell Mind https://www.verywellmind.com/women-who-changed-psychology-2795260