In memoriam as in life: Gender and psychology in the obituaries of eminent psychologists.

Abstract

The obituaries of eminent psychologists represent a reflexive moment in which psychologists writing about other psychologists construct their oft-times beloved colleagues, mentors, and friends as gendered persons who have made important contributions to the discipline. They are therefore a useful site to study the normative prescriptions of gender and psychology. We conducted a discourse analysis of 82 obituaries of women and men that appeared in the American Psychologist between January 1979 and July 1997. We conclude that the predominant image of the successful psychologist remains the "male scientist" and the dominant image of psychology as a discipline remains the neo-positivist version of science. As a consequence, women's contributions to the discipline are marginalized relative to those of men, and epistemological and theoretical controversies that might well lead to significant changes in disciplinary practices are "smoothed" over and ignored.

Gender in the Afterlife: An Exploration of Dynamic Gender Stereotypes in the Epitaphs of the Merry Cemetery of Săpânţa

“…Previous research on gender stereotypes in management used obituaries to explore differences in the way successful managers were described in western European countries ( Kirchler, 1992 ; Rodler et al, 2001 ) as well as in communist and post-communist Romania ( Curşeu and Boroş, 2011 ). As the content of the epitaphs and obituaries are likely to be influenced by social norms that also impact the stereotyping process in real social interactions ( Radtke et al, 2000 ), these artifacts are accurate reservoirs of (gender) stereotypes. Similar approaches can be adapted to explore the way in which for example political regimes with their specific social structures and institutional profiles shape the content of gender or other social stereotypes.…”

Using the Dead to Teach the Living

“…The women who were distinguished enough to “earn” obituaries often received ones which were inherently biased. Radtke, Hunter, and Stam (2000) discuss the obituary of Anna Freud that is imbued with provocative cultural and gender norms. It reads, “…Anna became his [her father’s] alter ego.…”

Queer signs: The women of the British projective test movement

“…Ann Kaldegg was described by students in their obituaries as being harsh, or relatively strict but also as warm or loving (Francis‐Williams, ). This illustrates a tension between simultaneous traditionally masculine and feminine traits and echoes the gendering of obituaries in psychology (Radtke, Hunter, & Stam, ). Equally, Lowenfeld has been remembered as distinctly dominant and confident in her approach to children's psychology and the development of her career and the ICP, yet as simultaneously fragile and reserved.…”