10 Women Who Helped Change Psychology

Anna Freud

When most people hear "Freud," Sigmund is probably the first name that comes to mind. However, the famous psychoanalyst's daughter Anna Freud was a well-known and influential psychologist in her own right.

Anna Freud not only expanded upon her father's ideas, but she also influenced other thinkers such as Erik Erikson. Among her many accomplishments were introducing the concept of defense mechanisms and expanding interest in the field of child psychology.

Mary Whiton Calkins

Mary Whiton Calkins studied at Harvard with some of the most eminent thinkers of the time, including ​William James and Hugo Münsterberg, despite never being given approval for formal admission. She completed all of the requirements for a doctorate, but Harvard refused to grant her a degree on the grounds that she was a woman.

Regardless, Calkins went on to become the first female president of the American Psychological Association (APA). During her career, she wrote over a hundred professional papers on psychology topics, developed the paired-association technique, and became known for her work in the area of self-psychology.

Mary Ainsworth

Mary Ainsworth was an important developmental psychologist. Her work demonstrated the importance of healthy childhood attachments, and she pioneered the use of a technique known as the "Strange Situation" assessment.

In her research on mother-child attachments and interactions, Ainsworth had a mother and a child sit in an unfamiliar room. Researchers would then observe the child's reactions to various situations, including a stranger entering the room, being left alone with the stranger, and the mother's return to the room.

Ainsworth's groundbreaking work had a major influence on our understanding of attachment styles and how these styles contribute to behavior later in life.

Leta Stetter Hollingworth

Leta Stetter Hollingworth was an early pioneer of psychology in the United States. She studied with ​Edward Thorndike and made a name for herself for her research on intelligence and gifted children. Another of Hollingworth's important contributions was her research on the psychology of women.

The prevailing opinion at the time was that women were both intellectually inferior to men and essentially semi-invalid when they were menstruating. Hollingworth challenged these assumptions, and her research demonstrated that women were as intelligent and capable as men were, no matter what time of the month it was.

Her many accomplishments are perhaps even more remarkable considering the fact that she not only faced considerable obstacles due to gender discrimination but also died at the age of 53. Despite a life cut short, her influence and contributions to psychology were impressive.

Karen Horney

Karen Horney was an influential ​neo-Freudian psychologist known for her take on feminine psychology. When Sigmund Freud famously proposed that women experience "penis envy," Horney countered that men suffer from "womb envy" and that all of their actions are driven by a need to overcompensate for the fact that they cannot bear children.

Her outspoken refutation of Freud's ideas helped draw greater attention to the psychology of women. Her theory of neurotic needs and belief that people were capable of taking a personal role in their own mental health were among her many contributions to the field of psychology.

Melanie Klein

Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein played a pivotal role in developing play therapy, a technique commonly used to help children express their feelings and experiences in a natural and helpful way. Through her work with children, Klein observed that children often utilize play as one of their primary means of communication.

Since young children aren't capable of some of the more commonly used Freudian techniques such as free association, Klein utilized play therapy to investigate children's unconscious feelings, anxieties, and experiences. Her work led to a major disagreement with Anna Freud, who believed that younger children could not be psychoanalyzed.

Klein suggested that analyzing a child's actions during play allowed the therapist to explore how various anxieties impact the development of the ego and superego. Kleinian psychoanalysis remains a major school of thought within the field of psychoanalysis.

Mamie Phipps Clark

In textbooks, Mamie Phipps Clark is often only mentioned in passing. Yet, she made many important contributions to psychology, including the development of the Clark Doll Test, her research on race, and her role in the famous 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case.

Clark became the first Black woman to earn a degree from Columbia University. Despite considerable prejudice based on both her race and her sex, she went on to become an influential psychologist. Her research on racial identity and self-esteem helped pave the way for future research on self-concept among minorities.

Christine Ladd-Franklin

Christine Ladd-Franklin's role as a female leader in psychology began early in life, as both her mother and aunt were staunch supporters of women's rights. This early influence not only helped her succeed in her field despite considerable opposition, but it also inspired her later work advocating for women's rights in academia. 

Ladd-Franklin challenged one of the leading male psychologists of the day, Edward Titchener, for not allowing women into his group of experimentalists. She studied at Johns Hopkins University and completed a dissertation titled "The Algebra of Logic". However, the school did not permit women to receive a Ph.D. at that time.

Ladd-Franklin went on to spend time in Germany studying color vision with Hermann von Helmholtz and Arthur Konig. She eventually rejected Helmholtz's theory of color vision to develop her own.

Finally, in 1926, nearly 44 years after completing her dissertation, Johns Hopkins awarded Ladd-Franklin the doctorate degree she had rightfully earned. Today, she is remembered for both her work in psychology and her influence as a pioneering woman in a field once dominated by men.

Margaret Floy Washburn

Margaret Floy Washburn was the first woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in psychology. She conducted her graduate studies with Edward B. Titchener and was his first graduate student.

Like many women on this list, Washburn's work in psychology took place at a time when women were often denied positions in academia based on their gender. Despite this, she became a well-respected researcher, writer, and lecturer.

Washburn's primary research interests were in the areas of animal cognition and basic physiological processes. She strongly influenced comparative psychology and developed a motor theory of cognition suggesting that the body's movements had an influence on thought.

Eleanor Maccoby

The name Eleanor Maccoby is likely familiar to anyone who has ever studied developmental psychology. Her pioneering work in the psychology of sex differences played a major role in our current understanding of things such as socialization, biological influences on sex differences, and gender roles.

Maccoby was the first woman to chair the psychology department at Stanford University and also the first woman to ever deliver a lecture at Stanford wearing a pantsuit. She held a position as professor emeritus at Stanford and received numerous awards for her groundbreaking work. The Maccoby Book Award is named in her honor.