Ethel Puffer Howes
1872-1950
A.M.S
Ethel Puffer wanted to make it possible for women to have career goals and still have a family. She wanted women to know that they were capable of being intellectual and did not want them to feel that they could not speak their minds because they might offend the males who may be listening. She believed that, “for educated women, real happiness and fulfillment required finding some way to combine intellectual activity and family life”(Scarborough, 1991).
Biographical info:
Ethel was the eldest of four children and grew up in Framingham Massachusetts. Her father was a railroad stationmaster and her mother, before she got married, was a teacher at Framingham Academy. Her parents both valued and highly supported education for both men and women. All of her sisters graduated from college and one other, including Ethel, received her PhD.
1891:
Ethel graduated form Smith College at the age of 19. After graduation she taught at Keene High School in New Hampshire.
1895:
She moved to Germany to further her education particularly in aesthetics. She attended Berlin University. One of the classes Puffer took was taught by Carl Stumpf because she was so interested in aesthetics.
1896:
She next attended the University of Freiberg while encouraged by Hugo Munsterberg. She went to Munsterberg’s home and met the family one Sunday afternoon. Munsterberg offered to help direct her studies. He also offered to let her work with him in his private laboratory.
1898:
Ethel worked with Munsterberg for a year and then decided to return with him to the United States where he had decided to go back to Harvard to join the faculty permanently. She studied for her Ph.D. at Harvard but because she was a woman she was considered a Radcliffe student. Munsterberg stated, “Miss Puffer is the only woman I have ever met who reaches in every respect the talents and methods of Miss Calkins”(Scarborough, 1991).
* Calkins was better known than Puffer was. These two women came from similar backgrounds, “both graduated form Smith College, both received training under Munsterberg, and both were considered to have exceptional potential for making outstanding contributions to psychology” (Scarborough, 1991). The reason why Calkins is better known than Puffer is because Puffer chose to get married and pursue a family life where Calkins did not.
When Puffer completed her studies she did not receive a diploma. She received a three –page written statement signed by all of her teachers. They found her “unusually qualified” (Scarborough, 1991).
1902:
Puffer received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe College
*During the next 10 years Puffer taught at Simmons and Wellesley colleges and served as Munsterberg’s lab assistant at Harvard.
1905:
Puffer published a book on her research in aesthetics, The Psychology of Beauty.
1908:
Ethel married Benjamin Howes.
1915:
Puffer and her husband settled in Scarsdale, New York. They had two children, Ellen in 1915 and Benjamin Jr. in 1917.
1922:
When Puffer turned 50 and expressed her concerns in two articles. Both were printed in the Atlantic Monthly. In her first article, “Accepting the Universe,” she presented a problem that is faced at many educated women. She questioned whether women should have marriage or a career or is it possible to have both. She thought that it was important for women to use their minds even if it is not what men might expect from them (Scarborough, 1991). In the follow-up article title, “Continuity for Women”, Puffer stated that “[Women] should supplant the notion of ‘career woman’ with the idea of the ‘contributing professional’ (Scarborough, 1991).
1930’s:
The couple moved to Washington, DC where her husband was a senior engineer and chief of the resettlement Administration. While in DC Puffer became active in civil affairs.
1940’s:
The couple moved to Connecticut to live with their son
1950:
Puffer died shortly after her 78th birthday.
In conclusion, in the words of Ethel Puffer Howes, “Suppose all women of ability could plan for love and children and each for the joy of the working! But then women would already have all the really desirable things” (Howes, 1922).
Codak, E.W. (2001). Dr. Ethel Puffer (Howes). Retrieved April 17, 2001 from the World Wide Web:
http://www,webster.edu/~woolflm/puffer.html
Howes, E. Puffer. (1922). Accepting the universe. Retrieved April 17, 2001 from the World Wide Web:
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Howes/accepting.html
Scarborough, E. (1991). Continuity for women: Ethel Puffer’s struggle. In G.A. Kimble, M. Werthheimer, & C.L. White (Eds), Portraits of pioneers in psychology. (pp.105-119). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.