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Feminist psychology
Psychological work that questions research based mostly on men and socially sanctioned beliefs about women, with its own associations, a journal and a divisional home in the American Psychological Association.
- Type of entry
- Interdisciplinary fieldAn area that draws on psychology together with other disciplines. Types are editorial labels, not an official classification.
- Cluster
- Social life and culturePeople in groups, cultures, communities and politics.
- Sources opened
- 4 of 41 read as a full page, 3 as selected text or an abstract, 0 not verified.
- Independent review
- Admitted after correctionsClaude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. 8 claims checked against 4 sources opened by the reviewer.
What it studies
Feminist psychology studies women's lives and gender, and questions how psychological knowledge about women has been produced. A founding editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly wrote that most behavioral research had been based on men, a gap the journal set out to address.
History and people
Historians reported in an APS Observer summary that early women psychologists were excluded or minimized in traditional accounts, and that first-wave feminism influenced psychology through the individual efforts of select women. Institution building followed. The Association for Women in Psychology was convened during the 1969 American Psychological Association meeting, and it reports that its efforts led to Division 35 in 1973 and a Women's Program Office in 1977. Psychology of Women Quarterly began in 1976.
People and documented roles
- Georgia Babladelis. Founding editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly
- Served as founding editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly and wrote that its purpose was to make research literature on women readily available. [4]
- Ann Johnson. Historian at the University of St. Thomas who presented on early women psychologists
- Argued that women psychologists' contributions and lives were excluded or minimized in traditional accounts of the field. [2]
- Alexandra Rutherford. Historian at York University who presented on feminism's influence on women psychologists
- Described first-wave feminism's influence on psychology as coming through the individual efforts of select women trying to do better science against socially sanctioned beliefs about women. [2]
- Stephanie A. Shields. Author of a 2015 article on turning points in feminist psychology
- Reported a project collecting first-person accounts of local turning points in feminist psychology. [3]
The AWP page names no individual founders and the sources opened give no biographies of AWP organizers, so none are listed. The Observer report names other women psychologists as speakers or examples, but only Johnson and Rutherford are listed because their presentations are summarized; the report's date is inconsistent, so contribution years are left null.
Dated milestones
- 1969Society or organization formed. Year.Association for Women in Psychology states it was convened during the American Psychological Association meeting of that year; self-description. [1]
- 1973Society or organization formed. Year.AWP says Division 35, the psychology of women group, was created in the American Psychological Association because of its efforts; this is a US organizational milestone and a self-description. [1]
- 1976Publication. Year.Georgia Babladelis became founding editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly. [4]
- 1977Institution built. Year.AWP says joint efforts with Division 35 created a Women's Program Office at American Psychological Association headquarters. [1]
Methods
The sources opened describe feminist psychology through its aims and history, not through one method. A historian quoted in the Observer summary described early feminist work as trying to do better science to combat socially sanctioned beliefs about women. A 2015 article gathers first-person accounts of local turning points, which supplement written histories.
Training and applications
The Association for Women in Psychology describes itself as an intersectional feminist organization and says it works through scholarship, activism and building feminist capacity in its members. In the United States, psychology titles and licenses are set by regulators, not by this guide, and this guide does not treat feminist psychology as a credential.
Boundaries and limits
No single origin is established, and the 1969 and 1973 events are United States organizational milestones. The association's account of its influence on Division 35 is a self-description that the sources opened do not test independently. Feminist psychology outside North America is not documented here.
Evidence behind the claims
The Association for Women in Psychology says it was convened during the 1969 meeting of the American Psychological Association because that body was not addressing the concerns of the emerging women's liberation movement.
The Association for Women in Psychology states that, because of its efforts, an official group for the psychology of women (Division 35) was created in the American Psychological Association in 1973.
The Association for Women in Psychology states that joint efforts with Division 35 produced a Women's Program Office at American Psychological Association headquarters in 1977.
The Association for Women in Psychology describes itself as an intersectional feminist organization and says it works through scholarship, activism and building feminist capacity in its members.
An APS Observer report on a symposium summarizes historian Ann Johnson's view that women psychologists' contributions and lives were excluded or minimized in traditional accounts of the field, and notes the difficulty of finding information on a 'second generation' of women who received PhDs between 1906 and 1945.
In the same report, historian Alexandra Rutherford is summarized as saying that first-wave feminism influenced psychology through the individual efforts of select women, who were trying to do better science to combat socially sanctioned beliefs about women.
Georgia Babladelis was the founding editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly in 1976 and wrote in its first volume that the journal aimed to make the literature readily available, since most behavioral research had been based on men.
A 2015 article by Stephanie A. Shields says turning points in feminist psychology can be traced to particular moments, including national milestones such as the founding of Division 35 and local events, and reports a project collecting first-person accounts from the late 1960s onward.
In the Psy101 course
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 10.3: Sexual Behavior, Sexuality, and Gender IdentityChapter 10, Emotion and Motivation. Topic reading. Nearest related reading; direct coverage of this field has not been verified.Sexuality and gender identity is the nearest textbook reading on gender.
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 1.2: History of PsychologyChapter 1, Introduction to Psychology. History reading. Nearest related reading; direct coverage of this field has not been verified.History of Psychology is the nearest general reading on how the discipline developed.
This is course relevance only. It is not evidence for the historical or practice claims on this page.See the full course map.
Sources and inspection
4 of 4 sources were opened and read at the level shown. A source marked as not verified supports no claim on this page by itself.
- [1]Association for Women in Psychology: AboutAssociation for Women in Psychology, undated. Professional association. Supports the history.Full page readRead the page, which has a Her-story passage and a description of the group; the former awpsych.org history URL redirected here and returned 404 at the redirect target.
- [2]The History of Women in PsychologyAPS Observer, Association for Psychological Science, undated. Reference work. Supports the history.Selected text readRead the report by Barbara Isanski on a convention symposium. It is a news report, not a peer-reviewed review, and its dates are inconsistent (a July/August 2009 issue with 2011 page metadata), so no publication year is given. Reader comments were not used.
- [3]The Legacy of Transformational Moments in Feminist PsychologyPsychology of Women Quarterly (record on Penn State Pure), 2015. Review article. Supports the history.Abstract onlyRead the abstract on the repository record; the article itself was not opened.
- [4]Georgia BabladelisPsychology's Feminist Voices, undated. Reference work. Supports the history.Selected text readRead the profile text on her career, Division 35 and Psychology of Women Quarterly; it was not checked against the journal's first volume.
Independent source review: Claude Code reviewer agent, separate from the writer, 2026-10-21. Verdict: Admitted after corrections. Of 8 claims checked, 5 were supported as written, 3 were reworded and 0 were removed.