Helen Thompson Woolley
American psychologist known for early experimental research on sex differences
American psychologist whose 1900 University of Chicago dissertation compared 25 men and 25 women on psychological and physical tests, and who later directed a Cincinnati bureau studying working children and became the first woman president of the National Vocational Guidance Association.
Why this person matters
Woolley tested claims of innate mental differences between the sexes and found few and small differences, which she attributed mainly to environment. Her 1910 review criticised the weak evidence behind claims of female inferiority.
Main contributions
Sex differences dissertation
Her doctoral study, 'Psychological Norms in Men and Women', later published as The Mental Traits of Sex, tested 25 men and 25 women. Men did better on motor skills and ingenuity, women on sensory discrimination, memory and association. Differences were small and larger within each group than between them.
Literature review of 1910
In 'A Review of the Recent Literature on the Psychology of Sex' she reported that earlier claims of sex differences rested on small samples, crude methods and observers who knew the sex of the brains they measured. She argued that psychological differences are more likely social than biological in origin.
Work on children and vocational guidance
From 1911 she directed the Bureau for the Investigation of Working Children at the University of Cincinnati, testing 5,483 subjects over several years. In 1921 she became the first woman president of the National Vocational Guidance Association.
Context and limits
The dissertation sample was small, and critics questioned whether the college students represented each sex. In 1930 she was asked to resign from Teachers College. Sources name the Cincinnati body differently: Psychology's Feminist Voices gives the Bureau for the Investigation of Working Children, while another source calls it the Cincinnati Vocation Bureau.
In your introductory course
Lifespan development.Appears in the gender and development chapters as an early empirical challenge to claims of innate mental sex differences.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 9.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1900
Received her University of Chicago PhD.
- 1910
Published a review of the psychology of sex in Psychological Bulletin.
- 1911
Became director of the Cincinnati bureau studying working children.
- 1921
Became first woman president of the National Vocational Guidance Association.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Helen Thompson WoolleySociety or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- Classics in the History of Psychology (York University), Woolley, A Review of the Recent Literature on the Psychology of Sex (1910)Original work. Text passages inspected.
- Wikipedia, Helen Thompson WoolleyReference work. Reference article inspected.