Describe the obstacles faced by women, Jews, and African Americans in pursuing careers in psychology, especially during the first half of the twentieth century.
Discrimination against women was a common practice in the early centuries. They were debarred from entering cafeterias and library, as they were reserved for men. Many female psychologists were not allowed to attend seminars either. For many years, only women colleges were open for women. These colleges enrolled women for higher education, and they too discriminated against women, based on their marital status.
A famous psychologist Eleanor Gibson was denied to work in a laboratory because she was a woman. The APA (American Psychological Association) was majorly a male dominated society, where women were not even allowed to become members.
Like women, Jews also faced a huge amount of discrimination and disrespect. Three prestigious Universities at that time, Yale, Harvard and Princeton, routinely spoke about Jewish invasion. They advised to keep a check on it. A policy of not accepting more than 10-15% of Jews per class was adopted by these Universities.
Jews, who were accepted, were not allowed to enter fraternities and often faced segregation. Many had to change their names from Jewish to non-Jewish names. This is because even by looking at their names, the Professors would deny them admission or a position in their laboratories.
African Americans have faced considerable discrimination too. Until 1940, only four black colleges in the Unites States offered undergraduate degree programs in psychology. Just like the Jews, even if the blacks were successful in getting admissions to white dominated universities, they would face a lot of discrimination.
Howard University was a black dominated university, often called “black Harvard”. Between 1930 and 1938, 36 black students were enrolled in graduate programs. Earning a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree for these black African American was an extremely a difficult task. Sadly, their trials did not end there.
After PhD, they had to struggle to find a suitable job. Many universities did not hire blacks. For black females, the situation was even worse, as they often had to work at a lower designation.