| Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society Students, as part of an advanced seminar, examined and wrote about the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers. |  |
| For information about referencing this paper - Click Here |
by Eric W. Codak
Ethel was born in Framingham, Massachusetts on October 10, 1872. She was the eldest of four daughters.
Her Father George, attended business school in Boston and worked as a railroad station master for the Albany Railroad in his later years.
Her mother Ella, taught in a high school until her marriage in 1871.
After Puffer completed high school, she went to Smith College, graduating in 1891. Just 19 years old, she took a teaching job at Keene High School in New Hampshire.
She later came back to Smith College to teach mathematics for three years. It was at this time when she became most interested in psychology and set out for Germany for further study in the fall of 1895.
She attended University of Berlin in 1895 and in 1896 attended the University of Freiberg, encouraged by Hugo Munsterberg.
Puffer began to study for her Ph.D. at Harvard but being a women she officially was considered a Radcliffe College student. This "college" was set up just for women depicting the discrimination in Academia at that time. Puffer finally received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe College in 1902.
During the beginning of the 20th century, Germany was where many Americans were enticed to go learn psychology, since the opportunities for research were so great. She still though experienced the same sex discrimination in academia as she did in America. She could not get permission to attend classes during her stay Berlin's university .
Puffer started to attend classes without anybody's consent, knowing she would be the only woman there.
Eventually, Puffer worked it out with the university to get official permission to attend, that same academic year.
Ethel heard of Hugo Munsterberg through a Canadian colleague in Berlin and learned he was back teaching at the University of Freiberg in Germany after being on a three-year appointment at Harvard. Though this colleague she was able to set up an appointment with Munsterberg.
Ethel was interested in Munsterberg's area of study in aesthetics and followed up by attending a course of lectures on the topic in Berlin (Scarborough & Furumoto 78).
After meeting Hugo Munsterberg, Puffer moved to and attended Freiberg University working with him in his laboratory. All went well and Munsterberg agreed to house Puffer shortly after her move.
After one year of research, Munsterberg suggested her to strive for a Doctorate.
After receiving an ACA (Association of Collegiate Alumnae) fellowship in 1897, which was sponsored by women for women, with help from Hugo, she followed the Munsterberg family back to Harvard to work on her dissertation for her Ph.D.
After receiving her Ph.D., Puffer stayed in the Boston area and taught at Radcliffe, Wellesley, and Simmons Colleges and wrote her first book, The Psychology of Beauty in 1905.
Three years later she met and married Benjamin Howes, an event that brought her career in psychology to a halt (Scarborough & Furumoto 82).
Later, Puffer(Howes) gave birth to two children, Ellen in 1915 and Benjamin, Jr. in 1917.
In the early 20's, Puffer (Howes), saw the discrimination against women with society being the cause of it. She concluded and wrote two articles about how women can combine marriage and still have a growing career in the Atlantic Monthly in 1922.
Institute for the Coordination of Women's Interests
In 1925, gaining interests and raising a few eyebrows with her articles, Puffer (Howes) later received a Grant from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fund and founded the Institute for the Coordination of Women's Interests. She was funded for three years and worked out of Smith College with Puffer (Howes) being Director.
The Institutes interests dealt with domestic responsibilities, mostly with researching families through demonstration programs. The Institute saw the need for "transforming the whole social setting and the inner attitude toward men and women to accept the twofold need of women as fundamental" (Scarborough & Furumoto 90).
She got some publicity when it was made known to the public that she had a children and a career working at the Institute. Never the less, after the three years of funding ended so did the Institute.
She made a later attempt to write on the marriage versus career issue in The Meaning of Progress in the Women Movement in 1929.
Ethel Puffer Howes' Publications