1872-1950
1891
In 1891, at age 19, Ethel Puffer Howes finished her undergraduate degree at Smith College and began teaching at Keene High School. After one year of teaching high school, she returned to Smith College to teach mathematics. During her three years at Smith College, she developed an interest in the field of psychology. Opportunities for graduate education in psychology in the U.S. were limited. In 1895, she departed for Germany to pursue graduate education. Howes attended the University of Berlin for one year. She found the university to be inhospitable to women in multiple ways. In a letter to her mother she wrote that the German professors were scandalized by how American women interacted with men. She wrote that American women, “let them [men] walk home with them [American women], etc. and that the University might very probably be closed to them after this” (December, 20, 1895, M-HP as cited in Scarborough and Furumoto, 1987).
1896
After a year she gained an introduction to Hugo Munsterberg. He was impressed with her work and invited her to attend the University of Freiberg. She worked in his laboratory for a year and returned to the U.S. when Munsterberg took a permanent position at Harvard. Due to Howes’ gender, she was required to enroll at Radcliffe College, even though she took classes at Harvard. After Ethel Howes completed her requirements for the Ph.D. program she was awarded certificate from Radcliffe College. Howes was not happy with this but she waited three years in hopes that Harvard trustees would change their position on women. Finally, she wrote a letter to the dean of Radcliffe College, demanding the university award Ph.D. degrees to women who completed the requirements. In 1902, Radcliffe awarded Ph.D. degrees to four women who successfully completed the Harvard program. Ethel Puffer Howes and one other woman accepted the Radcliffe Ph. D.
In the decade following her graduation, Ethel remained in Boston to teach at Radcliffe, Wellesley, and Simmons College (female colleges). She published a book, The Psychology of Beauty (1905), based on her doctoral dissertation. In 1908, She applied for a position at Barnard College in New York City but was declined because the president of Smith College heard that she was engaged. She married Benjamin Howes and they moved to New York City. In 1915, at the age of forty she gave birth to her first child, two years later she gave birth to a second child.
1922
In 1922, Ethel became the director of the Institute for the Coordination of Women’s Interests at Smith College. This position was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. To meet her responsibilities, Ethel resided at Smith College during the week and with her family on weekends.
Her research
Ethel is most known for The Psychology of Beauty (1905), the book she wrote based on her doctoral dissertation investigating beauty from a psychological perspective. The work was supported in part by an award from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae in 1897.
womenpsychologists 