Around the turn of the twentieth century, there wasn’t much space in academia for female scholars. Certain disciplines, like psychology, were almost exclusively male. Graduate programs didn’t permit women to enroll, and there were few opportunities for women to study psychology and impact the field with their ideas.
Margaret Floy Washburn was one of the few women who was able to fight her way into the field. Many psychologists now consider her one of the founding scholars of comparative psychology — and some historians argue she should be better remembered.
Who was Margaret Floy Washburn?
Margaret Floy Washburn was an American psychologist born in 1871 who earned her doctorate in psychology despite having to begin her doctoral studies as a “hearer,” meaning an unofficial student-at-large.
“She was a woman, a scientist working at a time when that was viewed as incompatible by the larger culture,” says Dorothy M. Fragaszy, the Emerita professor of psychology at the University of Georgia.
