Editing Psychology (section)

=== Women in psychology ===

==== 1900–1949 ====
Women in the early 1900s started to make key findings within the world of psychology. In 1923, [[Anna Freud]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-24 |title=Anna Freud: Theory & Contributions To Psychology |url=https://www.simplypsychology.org/anna-freud.html |access-date=2024-03-04 |language=en-US}}</ref> the daughter of [[Sigmund Freud]], built on her father's work using different [[Defence mechanism|defense mechanisms]] (denial, repression, and suppression) to [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyze]] children. She believed that once a child reached the [[Latency stage|latency period]], [[Child psychoanalysis|child analysis]] could be used as a mode of [[therapy]]. She stated it is important focus on the child's environment, support their development, and prevent [[neurosis]]. She believed a child should be recognized as their own person with their own right and have each session catered to the child's specific needs. She encouraged drawing, moving freely, and expressing themselves in any way. This helped build a strong therapeutic alliance with child patients, which allows psychologists to observe their normal behavior. She continued her research on the impact of children after family separation, children with socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and all stages of child development from infancy to adolescence.<ref>[[Erik Erikson|Erikson, Erik H.]] (1973) ''[[Childhood and Society]]''. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, p. 298</ref>

[[Functional periodicity]], the belief women are mentally and physically impaired during [[menstruation]], impacted [[women's rights]] because employers were less likely to hire them due to the belief they would be incapable of working for 1 week a month. [[Leta Stetter Hollingworth]] wanted to prove this hypothesis and [[Edward Thorndike|Edward L. Thorndike's]] theory, that women have lesser psychological and physical traits than men and were simply mediocre, incorrect. [[Leta Stetter Hollingworth|Hollingworth]] worked to prove differences were not from male genetic superiority, but from culture. She also included the concept of women's impairment during [[menstruation]] in her research. She recorded both women and men performances on tasks (cognitive, perceptual, and motor) for three months. No evidence was found of decreased performance due to a woman's [[Menstrual cycle|menstrual]] cycle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Classics in the History of Psychology -- Hollingworth (1914) Index |url=https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Hollingworth/Periodicity/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=psychclassics.yorku.ca}}</ref> She also challenged the belief intelligence is inherited and women here are intellectually inferior to men. She stated that women do not reach positions of power due to the [[Social norm|societal norms]] and roles they are assigned. As she states in her article, "Variability as related to sex differences in achievement: A Critique",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hollingworth |first=Leta Stetter |date=1914 |title=Variability as Related to Sex Differences in Achievement: A Critique |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2762962 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=510–530 |doi=10.1086/212287 |jstor=2762962 |s2cid=144414476 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref> the largest problem women have is the social order that was built due to the assumption women have less interests and abilities than men. To further prove her point, she completed another experiment with infants who have not been influenced by the environment of social norms, like the adult male getting more opportunities than women. She found no difference between infants besides size. After this research proved the original hypothesis wrong, [[Leta Stetter Hollingworth|Hollingworth]] was able to show there is no difference between the physiological and psychological traits of men and women, and women are not impaired during [[menstruation]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weinberger |first=Jessica |date=2020-03-02 |title=The Incredible Influence of Women in Psychology |url=https://www.talkspace.com/blog/important-women-in-history-psychology-therapy/ |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=Talkspace |language=en-US}}</ref>

The first half of the 1900s was filled with new theories and it was a turning point for women's recognition within the field of psychology. In addition to the contributions made by [[Leta Stetter Hollingworth]] and [[Anna Freud]], [[Mary Whiton Calkins]] invented the paired associates technique of studying memory and developed [[Self psychology|self-psychology]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/bio-mary-whiton-calkins |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.apa.org|title=Mary Whiton Calkins: 1905 APA President}}</ref> [[Karen Horney]] developed the concept of "[[womb envy]]" and neurotic needs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Karen Horney {{!}} German Psychoanalyst & Feminist Psychologist {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karen-Horney |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Psychoanalyst [[Melanie Klein]] impacted [[developmental psychology]] with her research of [[play therapy]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Melanie Klein {{!}} Institute of Psychoanalysis |url=https://psychoanalysis.org.uk/our-authors-and-theorists/melanie-klein |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=psychoanalysis.org.uk}}</ref> These great discoveries and contributions were made during struggles of [[sexism]], [[discrimination]], and little recognition for their work.

==== 1950–1999 ====
Women in the second half of the 20th century continued to do research that had large-scale impacts on the field of psychology. [[Mary Ainsworth]]'s work centered around [[attachment theory]]. Building off fellow psychologist [[John Bowlby]], Ainsworth spent years doing [[Field research|fieldwork]] to understand the development of mother-infant relationships. In doing this field research, Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation Procedure, a laboratory procedure meant to study attachment style by separating and uniting a child with their mother several different times under different circumstances. These field studies are also where she developed her [[attachment theory]] and the order of [[attachment styles]], which was a landmark for [[developmental psychology]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-23 |title=Ainsworth, Mary D. Salter - Psychologists and Their Theories for Students {{!}} HighBeam Research |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3456300011.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150323101023/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3456300011.html |archive-date=23 March 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ravo |first=Nick |date=1999-04-07 |title=Mary Ainsworth, 85, Theorist On Mother-Infant Attachment |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/07/us/mary-ainsworth-85-theorist-on-mother-infant-attachment.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Because of her work, Ainsworth became one of the most cited psychologists of all time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Haggbloom |first1=Steven J. |last2=Warnick |first2=Renee |last3=Warnick |first3=Jason E. |last4=Jones |first4=Vinessa K. |last5=Yarbrough |first5=Gary L. |last6=Russell |first6=Tenea M. |last7=Borecky |first7=Chris M. |last8=McGahhey |first8=Reagan |last9=Powell |first9=John L. |last10=Beavers |first10=Jamie |last11=Monte |first11=Emmanuelle |date=June 2002 |title=The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 |journal=Review of General Psychology |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=139–152 |doi=10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 |s2cid=145668721 |issn=1089-2680}}</ref> [[Mamie Phipps Clark]] was another woman in psychology that changed the field with her research. She was one of the first African-Americans to receive a doctoral degree in psychology from [[Columbia University]], along with her husband, [[Kenneth and Mamie Clark|Kenneth Clark]]. Her master's thesis, "The Development of Consciousness in Negro Pre-School Children," argued that black children's [[self-esteem]] was negatively impacted by [[racial discrimination]]. She and her husband conduced research building off her thesis throughout the 1940s. These tests, called the [[Doll Test|doll tests]], asked young children to choose between identical dolls whose only difference was race, and they found that the majority of the children preferred the white dolls and attributed positive traits to them. Repeated over and over again, these tests helped to determine the negative effects of [[racial discrimination]] and [[Racial segregation|segregation]] on black children's [[self-image]] and development. In 1954, this research would help decide the landmark [[Brown v. Board of Education]] decision, leading to the end of legal segregation across the nation. Clark went on to be an influential figure in psychology, her work continuing to focus on minority youth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Featured Psychologists: Mamie Phipps Clark, PhD, and Kenneth Clark, PhD |url=https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/clark |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.apa.org}}</ref>

As the field of psychology developed throughout the latter half of the 20th century, women in the field advocated for their voices to be heard and their perspectives to be valued. [[Second-wave feminism]] did not miss psychology. An outspoken feminist in psychology was [[Naomi Weisstein]], who was an accomplished researcher in psychology and [[neuroscience]], and is perhaps best known for her paper, "Kirche, Kuche, Kinder as Scientific Law: Psychology Constructs the Female." Psychology Constructs the Female criticized the field of psychology for centering men and using biology too much to explain gender differences without taking into account social factors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weisstein |first=Naomi |date=June 1993 |title=Psychology Constructs the Female; or the Fantasy Life of the Male Psychologist (with Some Attention to the Fantasies of his Friends, the Male Biologist and the Male Anthropologist) |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0959353593032005 |journal=Feminism & Psychology |language=en |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=194–210 |doi=10.1177/0959353593032005 |s2cid=142246296 |issn=0959-3535}}</ref> Her work set the stage for further research to be done in [[social psychology]], especially in [[Gender Construction|gender construction]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ball |first1=Laura C. |last2=Rutherford |first2=Alexandra |date=2016 |title=Naomi Weisstein (1939–2015). |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0039886 |journal=American Psychologist |language=en |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=77 |doi=10.1037/a0039886 |pmid=26766770 |issn=1935-990X}}</ref> Other women in the field also continued advocating for women in psychology, creating the [[Association for Women in Psychology]] to criticize how the field treated women. [[E. Kitch Childs|E. Kitsch Child]], [[Phyllis Chesler]], and [[Dorothy Riddle]] were some of the founding members of the organization in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Content |first=Contributed |date=1993-02-14 |title=E. KITCH CHILDS |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/02/14/e-kitch-childs/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Robert Reinhold Special to The New York |date=1970-09-06 |title=WOMEN CRITICIZE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/06/archives/women-criticize-psychology-unit-1million-in-reparations-is-demanded.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The latter half of the 20th century further diversified the field of psychology, with women of color reaching new milestones. In 1962, [[Martha E. Bernal|Martha Bernal]] became the first Latina woman to get a Ph.D. in psychology. In 1969, [[Marigold Linton]], the first Native American woman to get a Ph.D. in psychology, founded the [[National Indian Education Association]]. She was also a founding member of the [[Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science]]. In 1971, The Network of Indian Psychologists was established by [[Carolyn Attneave]]. Harriet McAdoo was appointed to the White House Conference on Families in 1979.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women in Psychology Timeline |url=https://www.apa.org/pi/women/iampsyched/timeline |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=www.apa.org}}</ref>

==== 21st century ====

In the 21st century, women have gained greater prominence in psychology, contributing significantly to a wide range of subfields. Many have taken on leadership roles, directed influential research labs, and guided the next generation of psychologists. However, gender disparities remain, especially when it comes to equal pay and representation in senior academic positions.<ref name=gruber>{{cite journal | last=Gruber | first=June | title=The Future of Women in Psychological Science | journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=16 | issue=3 | date=2020-09-09 | issn=1745-6916 | doi=10.1177/1745691620952789 | doi-access=free | pages=483–516 | pmid=32901575 | pmc=8114333 | hdl=1959.4/unsworks_77629 | hdl-access=free }}</ref> The number of women pursuing education and training in psychological science has reached a record high. In the United States, estimates suggest that women make up about 78% of undergraduate students and 71% of graduate students in psychology.<ref name=gruber/>