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Women Contribution to Psychology

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Women Contributions to Psychology Jovon Sutphin PSY/310 8 March 2013 Brandi Reynolds

Abstract The essay is written about Margaret Flow Washburn. The essay speaks of her background from her early teenage years and progressing through her career as a psychologist, her battles of a woman during an American period where women equal rights of educational progress was not the same as men. The essay also speaks on the contributions to her field of psychology presenting theories on the animal mind and her motor theory.
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in Psychology in 1894. Margaret Floy Washburn was considered a pioneer for her fight for equal educational opportunities for women. She initially had encountered resistance to her academic pursuit at Columbia University. Margaret had to wait three months before convincing the trustees to let her attend Cattell’s classes at Columbia. Some say Margaret success came because of the contributing factor that her family was financially and emotionally supportive of her academic pursuits and Rodkey (2010) stated, “the large family inheritance allowed for her to attend private school, and which in turn led to her rapid completion of public school.” Margaret was pushing her career to limits during a period in American history when women were excluded from many academic programs and did not hold prestigious positions. This was a reason she never married. Women who married during this American period who worked in the academic field would be expected to resign their position upon marriage. Not marrying put Margaret at advantage over other women psychologist who did marry. This allowed her to hold numerous positions during her career, becoming a well respected teacher and researcher. Margaret positions were assistant professor of the Department of Psychology, professor of psychology, philosophy, and ethics, lecturer for social, animal psychology, and undergraduate psychology professor. Not only did she hold different positions through
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