28 Helen Thompson Woolley

General Biography

Helen Thompson Woolley was a renowned psychologist, social reformer, and advocate for women’s equal rights. She was born on November 6th, 1874, in Chicago, Illinois. Woolley was the daughter of Paul Thompson and Isabella Perkins (Faxon) Thompson. Paul was a partner at a shoe manufacturing facility and Isabella was a stay-at-home mother. Woolley had one older sister, Jane, and a younger sister, Lillian (Morse, 2002). Both parents were very supportive of their daughters’ academic interests and encouraged them to pursue their goals.

Woolley had decided that she would like to go to college after she graduated from high school. She won a scholarship to the University of Chicago where she planned on becoming a teacher. However, she became fascinated with experimental psychology and social problems, so she enrolled in the Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy (Morse, 2002). She also took classes in neurology. Woolley graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Philosophy in 1897 at the age of 22 (Ragsdale, n.d.). After undergrad, Woolley was offered a graduate position at the same university. She decided that her major was going to be in Psychology with a minor in Neurology. While in graduate school, Woolley wrote two papers on Neurology after completing a study on women’s psychological functioning. While completing her study, she traveled to Germany and France on a European fellowship (Morse, 2002). Her dissertation was eventually published in 1903 with the title Psychological Norms in Men and Women and was republished in hardcover with a new title, The Mental Traits of Sex (Morse, 2002). Her dissertation was a breakthrough in psychology as she found that women’s mental functioning is very similar to men’s mental functioning (Milar, 2010). She became engaged to Paul Gerhardt Woolley while she was in graduate school. Woolley graduated from the University of Chicago summa cum laude in 1900 as one of the first women to earn a doctorate in psychology (Morse, 2002).

After receiving her graduate degree, Woolley taught at Mt. Holyoke College for Women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Here, she taught logic, introduction to philosophy, and psychology (Morse, 2002). In 1905, Woolley left Mt. Holyoke College and moved to Yokohama, Japan to marry Paul. Paul was transferred to the Philippines to work shortly after they were married, and Woolley went with him. While Paul worked in a laboratory, Woolley worked for the Bureau of Education of the Philippines as an experimental psychologist (Ragsdale, n.d.). While there, she did a research study to determine which ages a child should be going to school but ran into many difficulties. Ultimately, she recommended that children ages nine to twelve should be going to school (Morse, 2002). Paul’s job was transferred to Thailand in 1905, so Woolley and Paul moved once again.

Woolley became pregnant and moved back to the United States. Woolley delivered her daughter, Elenor Faxon Woolley, on August 26, 1907 (Morse, 2002). Paul arrived back in the United States six months later and the family lived in Nebraska for a year before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio. Woolley became a professor at the University of Cincinnati, teaching philosophy. In 1911, Woolley became the director of the Cincinnati Vocation Bureau where they wanted to improve working conditions for women and children. Woolley and Charlotte Fisher started a research study that compared the mental and physical development of working children and school children. Their findings were published in 1914 with the title Mental and Physical Measurements of Working Children. Woolley was also working on publishing more research on the psychology of sex differences. In 1914, a comprehensive review of 88 articles was published on this topic (Morse, 2002). In the same year, she gave birth to her second daughter, Charlotte, on March 5th. Woolley was also involved in the women’s suffrage movement in Cincinnati, often handing out papers to the public (Ragsdale, n.d.).

In 1921, Woolley and her family moved to Detroit, Michigan where she became a psychologist and assistant director at the Merrill-Palmer School. She continued to do research on childhood development and education. In 1925, Woolley decided to take a job at Columbia University to become the director of the Child Welfare Research at the Teacher’s College (Morse, 2002). Paul filed for divorce in 1927 as he wanted to marry a new woman. Devastated by the divorce, Woolley suffered from a nervous breakdown and took a year off work to recover. Columbia University eventually asked her to resign from her position in 1930 due to apparent funding cuts. In a letter from the university, she learned that her boss had undermined her and claimed that she was not a good teacher. She immediately started to look for other jobs but was unsuccessful due to the Great Depression (Ragsdale, n.d.). Woolley then became dependent on her daughter, Eleanor, and lived with Eleanor and her husband. She wrote that she became resentful and bitter towards Columbia University and anyone who treated her unfairly. Woolley died on December 24, 1947, at the age of 72 due to a cerebral hemorrhage (Morse, 2002).

Important Achievements

Helen Thompson Woolley had many important achievements in her career as a psychologist. She became one of the first women to earn a doctorate in psychology in 1900 (Morse, 2002). This is a major achievement as it showed that women were capable of receiving a doctoral degree in a mostly male dominated field. Woolley graduated around the same time as behaviorist John B. Watson but graduated with higher honors than him, achieving summa cum laude in comparison to his magna cum laude (Milar, 2010). In 1921, she served as the first female president of the National Vocational Guidance Association (Milar, 2010). Not many women were given the chance to be the president of an association, so earning this accreditation was a notable achievement.

Woolley’s work in the field of psychology and gender research played a significant role in how women are treated today. She found that there were no significant differences in the intellectual abilities of men and women (Ragsdale, n.d.). Her work challenged the stereotypes about the intellectual abilities of men at that time. She was met with some backlash, but overall stuck to her research. Woolley became very influential to other female psychologists who also wanted to challenge misconceptions between men and women’s intellectual abilities (Ragsdale, n.d.). Woolley also did work in the women’s suffrage movement, encouraging changes for the better. She advocated for women’s rights and for women to be treated as equals to men.

Woolley wrote many research papers throughout her career. She was the author of three books and around fifty articles reflecting on her research studies. Many of these were regarding men and women’s cognitive abilities and child development (Morse, 2002).  Her most well-known paper is The Mental Traits of Sex, published in 1903. This paper “received mixed reviews” as critiques questioned her subject pool and continued to criticize her conclusions (Milar, 2010).  One of her other papers, Personality Studies of the Three-Year-Olds, was very influential and paved the way for her to be published in magazines such as Mother and Child and Child Study (Ragsdale, n.d.).

Woolley was also one of the first psychologists to use a large sample when testing a new psychological and vocational scale. She tested 5483 subjects multiple times over several years in order to achieve her results in a study on working 14-year-olds versus non-working 14-year-olds development (Rodkey, 2010). Even though her large sample size has been surpassed by other psychologists, Woolley helped to set a precedent in psychological testing.

Historical Context

Many factors of the social climate between the late 19th and early 20th centuries likely had incredible impacts on the work of Helen Thompson Woolley. Woolley’s first area of concentration surrounded the idea of differences in intelligence between men and women. Her work in this area was likely incredibly influenced by social norms of this era expecting women to prioritize their homelives over their education and career under the assumption that women are not as capable as men in this field. Women were not seen as cognitively capable of earning a degree and performing at the same caliber as men at this time (Morse, 2002). These beliefs about women not being cognitively fit for higher education likely inspired Woolley’s work to provide evidence attesting to women’s intellect, being a female scholar herself. Also likely impacting this area of concentration was the women’s rights movement, much of this demonstration occurring at the same time as Woolley’s empirical work. Before women were allotted the right to vote in 1920, the women’s rights movement started many years before suffrage was the highlighted concern. This movement advocating for women’s rights, Woolley also being an advocate (Morse, 2002), likely strengthened Woolley’s motive for her work about women’s intelligence being equivalent to men’s.

Additionally, the economic climate and industrial advances in the United States held an important role in Woolley’s work focusing on the effects of child labor. Though her initial work with children began after moving to the Philippines with her husband, and again after having children of her own, some of her most important work with children was in researching the effects of child labor laws (Morse, 2002) in a time period struck with extreme poverty amidst the start of the great depression. Woolley’s work with child labor occurred as laws restricting this exploitation were becoming increasingly strict and more effective (Morse 2002). Child labor was more common during this time period as both industrialization and economic hardships were increasing in the western world (Library of Congress, n.d.). Children working in dangerous conditions to support their family in a time of need inspired Woolley to understand how this was affecting the youth being exposed to these hardships. After the Ohio Child Labor Law (1910) was enacted Woolley became director of the Bureau of Investigation of Working Children (Ragsdale, n.d.), further demonstrating the impact of these events on her career.

The concentrations and shifts in the psychological realm in this period also likely influenced Woolley’s work. In the late 19th century psychological work was largely shifting to become more scientific and empirically based after the distinction between psychology and philosophy had been more clearly established earlier on (Danziger, 2013). However, much of what was widely accepted to be true regarding the differences between men’s and women’s cognitive abilities was not based on empirical evidence. Both the quality and quantity of women’s intelligence was considered to be inferior to men’s. Women were believed to be entirely void of scientific thought (Morse, 2002). Woolley, however, used empirical research to study the cognitive differences between men and women, demonstrating women’s ability to hold just as much intelligence as men. The climate of this time regarding women as less intelligent likely inspired Woolley’s research to provide evidence in opposition to this belief. Additionally, psychology’s concentration on becoming more scientifically founded encouraged Woolley to use scientific methods to come across these findings in her dissertation. Relatedly, psychology also had focused on the idea of normativism in human nature during the time period of Woolley’s work (Danziger 2013). This too directly relates to Woolley’s accomplishments as she studied what was expected and believed regarding the intellectual differences between men and women.

More specifically, Woolley’s work was also likely impacted by other individual, well-known psychologists. John Dewey and James Angell were likely the most influential of these people. Dewey was a professor at the school Woolley attended and also established the Laboratory of Psychology at the university (“About Us”, n.d.). Because Woolley spent extensive time on research in psychology, the influence of this was monumental to her. More directly, Dewey impacted Woolley as a professor of hers who also gave lectures on his aim to reform education (Morse, 2002). Dewey’s classes and more public lectures were also believed to shape Woolley’s work in studying intelligence. Like Dewey, the first head of the psychology department (“About Us”, n.d.), Angell also taught Woolley and influenced her research through his own. Angell was another renowned psychologist, very involved in the then progressing field of experimental psychology (Hunter, 1951). He too is expected to have influenced Woolley as both a professor and advisor (Morse, 2002; Ragsdale, n.d.). Because Woolley completed her dissertation under Angell (Ragsdale, n.d.), this research sparked her career in psychology, Angell too helped advance her career. In fact, her work under Angell was so powerful that it swayed some with opposing beliefs because of the strength of her work, propelled by Dewey and Angell. One person that Woolley particularly influenced is William I. Thomas, another psychologist studying intellectual differences between men and women. Thomas completed his dissertation based on claims about strong differences occurring between men and women and the reasons for them. Because Thomas’s conclusions were not as well supported as those of Woolley, he abandoned these previous beliefs. Woolley’s work also had the potential to influence all proceeding psychologists to use empirical studies to confirm findings rather than to accept beliefs with little to no support. Her influence could also expand beyond psychology to all women with interest in pursuing educational goals with the knowledge that they are not genetically incapable of doing so and also to those enforcing childhood labor under the belief that it as beneficial as an academic environment.

Historical Impact

Helen Thompson Woolley was an influential psychologist and researcher who made great strides in the field of psychology, particularly in the early 1900s. Her work focused on gender disparities as she sought to dethrone the stereotypes surrounding women’s intellectual capabilities that had run rampant for decades and affected numerous careers. A perfect example of this negative stereotype would be the common thought at the time that women could not be doctors. While it was widely accepted that the nurse role had to be filled by a woman, they were never anything more than an assistant to the male doctor, as it was believed a woman did not possess the cognitive ability to practice medicine.

Through her dissertation work at the University of Chicago testing differences in psychological characteristics based on gender, she found that men held the upper hand in most motor skills tests, however women possessed finer sensory differentiation (Milar, 2010). Women were also found to perform slightly higher than their male counterparts in memory and association while men scored higher in ingenuity (Milar, 2010). Her findings brought her to conclude that differences were due to “differences in the social influences brought to bear on the developing individual” citing toys, games, and physical activity emphasis as the culprit (Thompson, 1903). Examples of the findings of this study can still be seen today by examining the workforce of the United States. On average, more men participate in manual labor jobs than women, which typically require less memory and association, and more fine motor control. Because of this, the average male is going to be better at what they do every day, while the average female is going to excel at their daily tasks as well, such is the nature of human learning. These results were groundbreaking and laid the foundation for further research in gender to provide more inclusivity and balance as she had finally “debunked the idea that women’s intelligence differed from men’s” (Morse, 2002). Woolley, however, was not finished with her research, as she was not satisfied with simply making societal strides for women, but she also had the desire to advance America’s youth. Not only did Helen Thompson Woolley pave a new road for women in the intellectual world, but she also continued on to pave that road for the individuals that would become the world’s future – children. Her work published in An Experimental Study of Children illustrated that children do not benefit from leaving school – debunking the defense child laborers used to justify child labor (Morse, 2002).

Not only was this study a benefit for the children being used for child labor, but it was also a win for society as a whole, because the corrupt practice of using children in high-risk industrial environments was put to an end and banned in the United States. The corporations and industries using child labor now had no argument for using such practice, which exposed the reality of the industry, which was greed and modern-day slavery. She advocated for nursery school as she believed that once a child began to struggle in school it was “too late” to guide them towards the road of success (Rodkey, 2010). While nursery school does not mean today what it did at the time of Woolley’s research, the basic idea of this finding remains the same. Children who are identified as struggling in school are placed into special classes to help them advance at the same pace as the rest of the student body by simply switching the manner in which educational material is distributed and taught. These findings led to noteworthy contributions to child development (Ragsdale, n.d.). Her work started the change in societal norms across the board as she highlighted the importance of education and worked to break common stereotypes. Without Woolley’s work, it might have taken years, if not decades longer to abolish child labor in the United States, alongside causing thousands of children to not receive the help they needed in the school system. Her work was groundbreaking, and the effects of her studies can still be seen today in the workforce and society.

 References

About Us | Department of Psychology | The University of Chicago, n.d. https://psychology.uchicago.edu/about

Danziger, K. (2013). Psychology and its history. Theory & Psychology, 23(6), 829-839. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354313502746

Hunter, W. S. (1951). James Rowland Angell, 1869-1949.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1676452

Library of Congress. (n.d.) U.S. History Primary Source Timeline. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/

Milar, K. S. (2010). Overcoming ‘Sentimental Rot’. Monitor on Psychology, 41(2), 26.

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/02/sentimental

Morse, J. F. (2002). Ignored but Not Forgotten: the work of Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley. NWSA Journal, 14(2), 121–147.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316895?seq=15

Ragsdale, S. (n.d.). Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley. Webster Faculty.

http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/wooley.html

Rodkey, E. (2010). Helen Thompson Woolley. Feminist Voices.

https://feministvoices.com/profiles/helen-thompson-woolley

Thompson, H.B. (1903). The Mental Traits of Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago Press https://library.manipaldubai.com/DL/the_mental_traits_of_sex.pdf