Women have long been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. In 2015, women made up just 28% of the STEM workforce. One exception is industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, the subdiscipline of psychology focused on the world of work. In this year’s U.S. News & World Report “Best Job” rankings, I-O psychology is the 21st Best STEM Job and the 2nd Best Science Job.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, over 65% of both master’s degrees and doctorates in I-O psychology conferred between 2015 and 2016 were awarded to women. Also, according to the APA Division 14, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s (SIOP) 2018 Membership Survey, a little over half of the respondents were women. But things weren’t always this favorable for women representation in I-O psychology. For example, only 3% of respondents to the 1967 APA Division 14 Salary Survey were women.
In spite of the substantial hardships (e.g., overt sexism, the pay gap) they’ve faced—even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted—women have made, and continue to make, remarkable contributions to I-O psychology. The purpose of this blog series, “Working Women Who Study Work,” is to highlight such contributions.
Lillian M. Gilbreth
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Some scholars consider psychologist, engineer, and ergonomist Lillian M. Gilbreth, who is popularly depicted in the book (1948) and movie (1950) Cheaper by the Dozen, the first person to have completed a doctoral dissertation in I-O psychology (Ph.D., Brown University, 1915). In her dissertation, she discussed the relevance of applying human relations to the workplace and studying workers’ individual differences. Gilbreth and her husband ran the consultancy Frank B. Gilbreth, Inc., Consulting Engineers, and they were among the first management consultants to film workers in order to learn how to improve the efficiency of work tasks. As a psychologist, Gilbreth emphasized the importance of considering worker experiences, and she studied psychological constructs that, to this day, are examined by I-O psychologists (e.g., fatigue, job satisfaction). |
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Moller_Gilbreth#/media/File:Lillian_Moller_Gilbreth.jpg |
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Franziska Baumgarten
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American women weren’t the only ones contributing to I-O psychology during its early years. Polish-born applied psychologist Franziska Baumgarten (Ph.D., University of Berlin, 1917) researched gifted schoolchildren, individual differences, war, refugees, and workers. Having been raised by a textile manufacturer in an industrial city, she respected factory workers, and being sympathetic to their plight (e.g., low wages, long hours), she decided to study under German-American I-O psychology pioneer Hugo Münsterberg; in a sense, Baumgarten was an early proponent of prosocial I-O psychology. As an I-O psychologist, she was interested in the assessment of not only ability and interests, but also other work-relevant characteristics, such as gratitude and dishonesty. She experienced discrimination (e.g., little to no research support) as a foreign, Jewish woman at the University of Berne, where she was the third woman to become a faculty member. |
Image Source: https://www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de/polencsr_biografien.html |
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Marion A. Bills
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In 1951, Marion A. Bills, an experimental psychologist by training who conducted dissertation research on visual sensation of light (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College, 1917), was elected the first woman president of Division 14. Before her presidency, she was part of an APA committee tasked with developing a board certification program for psychology professionals. Bills was an expert at applying psychology to human resource management (e.g., employee selection, compensation). Throughout her career, Bills had several academic appointments (e.g., Carnegie Institute of Technology—a predecessor of Carnegie Mellon University, University of Kansas), and she also worked as an I-O psychology practitioner at Aetna Life Insurance Company. Her applied research and consulting culminated in many publications in both prestigious scientific and practitioner journals. |
Image Source: http://unotes.hartford.edu/announcements/2013/01/2013-01-03-university-receives-23-million-from-estate-of-pioneering-businesswoman.aspx |
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Mary L. Tenopyr
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Mary L. Tenopyr became Division 14’s second woman president in 1979—28 years after Marion A. Bills was elected. She received her Ph.D., specializing in psychological measurement, from the University of Southern California in 1966. Her decision to study I-O psychology was, in part, influenced by her personal experiences with sex discrimination. In spite of the adversity she faced, she had an exceptionally successful career. For example, during her 25 years at AT&T, she worked to ensure that the company’s employee selection system was evidence-based and guided by research. Additionally, she was part of a team of I-O psychologists whose efforts benefited society by influencing the development of the 1978 Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. |
Image Source: http://www.siop.org/foundation/awardsandgrants.aspx |
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This blog post focused on the accomplishments of innovative women who were active in research and practice well before the field became known as I-O psychology. To learn more about historical women in I-O psychology, read “American Female Pioneers of Industrial and Organizational Psychology During the Early Years” by I-O psychology historian Laura Koppes Bryan. Stay tuned for future blog posts featuring the work of today’s women I-O psychologists!
Good reading.
I very much appreciate this article. I have a Master’s degree in I/O Psychology, and this information helps me to understand and value why I love the field. Thanks so much!