Mary Whiton Calkins: Denied a Degree

Mary Whiton Calkins (died 26 February 1930)

Although she could not study psychology formally at Harvard University, Mary Whiton Calkins not only became a psychologist, she eventually became the first woman president of the American Psychological Association.

Born in 1863, Calkins graduated from Smith College with a degree in classics and philosophy. Her later interest in psychology led her to pursue courses at Harvard--where she faced opposition because the presence of a woman in the classroom would obviously be much too disruptive.

Although she could not register formally as a student, she enrolled in classes at the Harvard Annex (which became Radcliffe College) and, ultimately, was allowed to sit in on regular Harvard psychology classes.

She began attending lectures in 1890, and in 1892 was--grudgingly--admitted to Harvard as a "guest." She completed coursework, exams, and research needed for a doctoral degree.

Her dissertation, "An Experimental Research on the Association of Ideas," was presented in 1895 to a committee that included the noted scholar William James, and although members of the committee unanimously approved, Harvard refused to award Calkins a Ph.D.

In 1902, she and three other women who had done graduate work at Harvard were offered doctoral degrees from Radcliffe College. Calkins refused. As Jacy L. Young reports, this effort was

followed in 1927, by a petition to Harvard by thirteen prominent alumni, including of psychologists R. M. Yerkes, E. L. Thorndike, and R. S. Woodworth, requesting that Calkins be granted her degree. Asserting that there was no adequate reason to do so, the university once again refused Calkins a doctoral degree. Efforts to have Harvard grant Calkins her degree posthumously continue to this day. In 2002, psychologist Karyn Boatwright and her students at Kalamazoo College petitioned Harvard to grant Calkins her degree, and established a website, Justice for Mary Whiton Calkins, to gather support for that effort.

Calkins published books on both psychology and philosophy. After her 1905-6 term as APA president, Calkins was elected to the presidency of the American Philosophical Association in 1918.

Jacy Young's excellent profile of Calkins, from Psychology's Feminist Voices, gives an overview of her life and work in addition to providing a bibliography and a list of resources for further reading.

For a podcast about Mary Whiton Calkins from York University's This Week in the History of Psychology, click here.

Update, 2016: The petition of the Kalamazoo College students has now been archived, but in 2016, students at the University of British Columbia have taken up the cause:

In 2002, psychologist Karyn Boatwright and her students at Kalamazoo College petitioned Harvard to grant Calkins her degree. And again in 2005 the Society for the Psychology of Women, a division of the American Psychological Association, urged Harvard to recognize Calkins’ for her efforts. Harvard’s response in all cases has been no.

The psychology students will be adding their voice to those who have fought on behalf of Mary Whiton Calkins and they will ask Harvard to grant her a degree posthumously. Their ultimate goal is to acknowledge Calkins’ determination and her contributions to both psychology and philosophy so that she may be an inspiration to all people struggling for equality.

Update, 2018: I notice that a petition to Harvard in support of the granting of a degree was also posted on change.org--it garnered few signatures, however, and is now closed.

Update, April 2018: One more effort to on Mary Whiton Calkins's behalf--

I saw your article on Mary Whiton Calkins not receiving her Ph.D. from Harvard. The Calkins Family Association, a national genealogy group, is having its triennial reunion in Chicago April 27, 2018. We too are signing a petition to be mailed to Harvard demanding they finally bestow upon Mary W. Calkins her rightfully earned degree. You may find us on Facebook where our petition letter is posted. https://www.facebook.com/CFA1603/?ref=bookmarks

Thank you,

Nanette Armstrong, CFA President