BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID: 1 VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-TIMEZONE: America/Los_Angeles DTSTAMP: 20260531T131804 BEGIN:VEVENT UID: info@vconferenceonline.com SUMMARY:History of Psychology & EPA Presidential Invited Keynote: Alexandra Rutherford PRIORITY:0 CATEGORIES:SESSION CLASS:PUBLIC DTSTART:20200618T123000 DTEND:20200618T135000 URL: https://event.vconferenceonline.com DESCRIPTION:PSYCHOLOGY AND SUFFRAGE: GENDER, RACE, SCIENCE, AND DEMOCRACY AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY
ALEXANDRA RUTHERFORD (YORK UNIVERSITY)
CHAIR: AMY LEARMONTH

In 2020, we mark not only the 125th anniversary of EPA, but the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote in the United States. The 1920 ratification was preceded by several decades of activism by women and abolitionists, with the historic Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 often cited as the beginning of the movement. Thus, the first decades of EPA, and indeed the first decades of scientific psychology, coincided with the long march towards suffrage. This movement was beset by internal contradictions and the often frankly eugenicist ideology that permeated American society and psychology during this time. In this talk I provide a glimpse into the ways psychologists' writings on race and gender reinforced arguments both for and against universal suffrage at the same time that some individual psychologists worked diligently for women's rights both inside and outside the discipline. In revisiting this history, we are prompted to consider how gender, race, class, immigration status, and their intersections continue to privilege some, and deny others, access to citizenship and equal representation under the law. LOCATION: END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR